Power
by Senyor Fier Mensheir
Summary: AU, Sequel to Powerless. Ryoku/Harry is on the second leg of his journey. He has been sent to yet another world, with another set of tasks. How will life turn out for this no longer young hero? His second great adventure, this time in a world of ninja.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter one**_

_*_

_*_

"So now that I'm all rested...what do I do?" Ryoku, also known as Harry Potter, asked as he sat infront of Alexandre Westwurld, his savior and teacher.

"I'm sure Aetas already told you or something to that end, about the abilities of those twin blades you have in your possession," Alex said, "No need to say anything, I already know that he did. Your first mission and test for me is complete, while not perfect, was more that satisfactory."

Aetas being the Supreme Being, or Supreme God of Aetas, father of gods and goddesses, a paradox in and of himself. God of Time, and so many other things of his own reality. Lord of Ryoku, as Ryoku is the Avatar of Aetas, the Avatar of Time. In case anyone forgot.

"Alright, so now what? Or rather, where?" Ryoku asked, "Oh, and do you know what the First Seed lets me do?"

"You mean after all this time, you still haven't figure out any of your new arsenal of powers?" Alex asked shocked, he'd have gone nuts trying to figure things out himself if he were in Ryoku's shoes.

"Well I figured you'd tell me anyway, so why would I have bothered?" Ryoku said, cheekily.

"Git," Alex muttered, then spoke more clearly, "The First Seed grants you the ability to have complete control over nature..well..if you were on Aetas of Aetas' reality's Earth. Anywhere else and you still have almost as much control, but with some limitations in place, I'll let you figure those out. On Aetas it would take no energy at all to perform, but anywhere else there is a price, with you it would be in the form of magic."

"So I can create life out of no life?" Ryoku asked.

"You mean create a golem, an actual living one with an aware soul?" Alex asked.

"Yeah."

"Sure," Alex said, "You can make a field of flowers bloom, you can mold fire into a fox, and so on and so forth."

"What are the more or less supposedly obvious limitations?" Ryoku asked.

"Well...you can't create tsunamis, or world wide earthquakes," Alex said, "You definitely can't make volcanos erupt, or for tornadoes to form."

"Uhm...anything else?"

"Well you have a complete mastery, which you got from Aetas, over the elements, but when controlling and molding them you will still need to expend some magic. From this ability to mold, you will be able to create new life," Alex said, "Limitation wise...hmm...you can't make another person, nothing human or remotely like it. Mildly sentient sure, but with the ability to form rational thought? No way."

"Ok...so..where are you sending me? Another reality ruled by a _Harry Potter_?" Ryoku asked.

"Do you want to go to one?" Alex asked.

"Well...not really.." Ryoku said, shrugging.

"Then I am not chucking you in such a reality," Alex said, "I want you to learn Japanese."

"You're sending me to Japan?" Ryoku asked incredulously.

"Where I am sending you, the people speak the language more or less," Alex said, "I also want you to read up on some Japanese comics."

"Manga?" Ryoku asked, "I've read your collection of Bleach, and Nurarihyon no Mago, does that help me?"

"The Bleach...sort of, Nurarihyon no Mago...possibly," Alex said, "But they're not the ones I want you to read."

"What then? Your ninja comics collection, cause you know they're cool and all that, but..." he saw Alex begin to grin, "...you're not kidding are you..."

"I want you to read the Fuedal Japan comics, samurai, ninja, you name it, I know I've got it, and I want you to read it," Alex said, "Learn from them, pirate them, and when I send you off, I want you to be one of them."

"You want me to learn from comics?" Ryoku asked.

"Yup," Alex said, "Martial Arts, ninjutsu, swordsmanship, everything."

"I know my Avatar garb is cool and all, but do I get some ninja duds?" Ryoku asked hopefully.

"You seriously want new duds? Duds? Dudley?" Alex asked jokingly.

*insert death glare # 16 here*

"Ok, ok, kidding, kidding," Alex said, "Sure, sure, I'll whip something up, while you read. Happy?"

*insert death glare # 16, intensity setting at max, here*

"E..he..he..he," Alex said nervously, "I'll get right to it, you know where the library is right? Great, see you later!"

#

An indefinite number of hours later, Ryoku managed to finally file away the last bit of information in his mind. He'd read so many of the blasted things, but only one of them really caught his eye and mind for some reason. Naruto.

"You're finished, good, so am I," Alex said entering the library just as Ryoku was tidying up the place, Alex handed him a wrapped box, "Here, open it and try them on, they've got all sorts of spells on them."

Ryoku opened the package and tried on his new clothes. In the end he chose to just use his avatar garb for his everyday affair, all those people in the comics had a uniformed lifestyle anyway, they all wore the same thing day after day after day. If they could do it, so would he.

"Well, you can at least use the black suit when you need to be stealthy, or the dark gray one for that matter," Alex said, "All sorts of colors for differen situations, a few kimonos, yukata, and so on and so forth."

"You made me an entire wardrobe," Ryoku said, "Thanks, anyway, even if I wont use all of them."

"Since you seem to have everything, and no more than you did before you started reading," Alex said, "I will now be sending you to the Elemental Continent, you do know where I am sending you, right?"

"I do now," Ryoku said, resigned to his fate, "You got any minor and major objectives for me?"

"Thanks for reminding me," Alex said, "Almost forgot."

"Well?" Ryoku asked impatiently.

"First and foremost, I want you to help that world become what it becomes," Alex said.

"Help that world become what it becomes?" Ryoku asked, confused.

"The Sage of the Six Paths is the Father of Ninjutsu, yes?" Alex said.

"Yea..so..?"

"Before him, ninja were just assassins, blending in the shadows, and stuff like that, smoke bombs, you name it," Alex said, "After him there were specialized clans, ninja techniques, and the like, do see where I'm going with this?"

"No..."

"He is the Father of Ninjutus, the first jinchuuriki, the Father of Ninja-kind as the comics know it," Alex said.

"I know I found books on my life, and possible future, so...I'm going to go to this ninja world and help the Rikudou Sennin become this Father of Ninjutus?" Ryoku asked.

"Something like that," Alex said, "There will be a Mother of Genjutsu, but there is no Father of Taijutsu. Please remember what I said about your abilities and powers."

"Ok...so I get to be the all around martial arts master...right?" Ryoku asked.

"What do you think?" Alex asked, "You know what, don't answer that."

"That all?"

"Nope," Alex said, "By simply being there, things will not go the same way as the comics."

"I know that, so..?"

"You get to somehow be the Yondaime Mizukage," Alex said happily, "You are semi-immortal by being Avatar of Aetas, so that wont be a problem, the living that long part."

"Anything else?" Ryoku asked impatiently.

"Help save the world, but do not try and save it yourself," Alex said, "It is not your calling."

"Alright, I think I can do that," Ryoku said.

"One last thing," Alex said, "Now that you have power, I want you to become powerful."

"I think I can do that," Ryoku said, "Before you do whatever to me, is there anything else? You seem to keep stalling."

"Fine, I want you to live," Alex said, "You nearly died once, this time the only way to return to your world, your original world is to die, and no you can't commit suicide or sepuku."

"If say, I do get married, have kids, and whatever, and I do die...do I get to go back and visit?" Ryoku asked, as he knew that he could visit his friends in Aetas.

"We'll see, we'll see," Alex said ending their conversation, he then walked up to Ryoku and shoved him into a portal with a palm thrust to Ryoku's solar plexus.

"Daaaaaamn Yoooooouuuu Aleeeeeeeeeex!!!!!" Ryoku shouted as he spiralled away inside the portal.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter two**_

_*_

_*_

His chest hurt a lot, it was hard to breathe, being palm thrusted in one's solar plexus really did hurt.

'_Damn that Alex..it really hurt too.._' Ryoku thought to himself as he looked around at his surroundings.

Of all the places he expected to end up in, he had to end up in the place he least expected, a rock jutting out of the sea in the middle of nowhere. It was shaped like a coffin too, with a lid like rock looking as if it was sliding off into the waves.

'_Now what am I going to do?_' he wondered, then decided to do the first thing he could think of.

He dived into the water, substituing his avatar garb and human body for that of a lung dragon, his serpentine form perfect for swimming as it was in a way similar to a snake or an eel.

He rocketed through the water, a giant serpent beneath the waves. Not knowing where he was or which direction he should go, his thoughts drifted to food for some reason. As a dragon he had many more enhanced senses, most of which were picking up the vibrations in the water given off by schools of fish, fish that were swimming rapidly, as if escaping something.

There were also vibrations in the water that felt like boat, where there were boats there were sure to be people. He could get directions from them. So he swam in the direction of the panicking schools of fish.

As he drew closer the vibrations in the water he was making were making the fish more and more panicked. From his size and speed alone the fish believed him to be an even greater threat to their survival as compared to the fishermen and their boats. The nets and boats they could escape from, but the dragon was something that they could only dream of escaping from.

The imperious curse works by exerting one's will on the mind of another being. It calms and dumbs down the mind, making the will and presence of the caster sound not only seductive but also alluring, it is the sound of an angel and a demon rolled into one. There is no escaping it if one's will or sense of self is not strong.

As soon as Ryoku was close to the fish he did something similar to the imperious curse, he imposed his will directly on the minds of the fish, all of them. Suddenly he was hundreds if not thousands of different things, fish, he was all the fish. He had forgotten that he was still a dragon. He had the fish lose their sense of self, if they had ever really had any. The schools were made to combine into one, no matter how many of them got caught in the nets of the fishermen, they swam forming a ball. Many of them ended up being seen on the surface of the water in the middle of the boats.

The fishermen themselves began to wonder why such a thing was happening, never had catching fish become so easy, just as never had they seen some thing like what the fish were doing happen before.

After the forming of a ball, Ryoku had the fish swim in one circular direction, which forced the water to flow with them, thus creating a whirlpool, one that threatened to pull in the fishing boats.

There were so many fish, more and more were forced into joining the already large and diverse school. Soon even sharks joined in, then bigger fish, and so on and so forth. Ryoku was instinctively forcing his will, and some of his magic on the creatures of the sea, of the deep.

The whirlpool began to churn dangerously, the fishermen beginning to feel the pull, and bagan to unfurl their sails in order to get away from the phenomenon. A storm was gathering overhead, thunder could begin to be heard, and lightning began to flash every so often. The winds too began to pick up, shredding the sheets of the sails, causing the boats to sway violently in place.

Such a large concentration of marine life could only mean one thing, there something greater than mortal man was coming, and the fishermen did not know whether to fear for their lives or praise their luck.

As lightning became as frequent as lighting up the skies every few seconds, the fishermen watched as something from the depths of the sea began to rise up from the center of the whirlpool. The spiked ridge on Ryoku's back could be seen above the water's surface, moving quickly up the body of the whirlpool, following the flow of the water. His the ridges were not solid, for some reason they followed the flame patterns on Ryoku's avatar garb, but instead of merely looking like flames, these ridges were flames. They were ethereal flames, forming spiked ridges along his back.

Once his head rose out of the waters, the men knew what he was. His long snout, his maw bearing teeth sharper than knives, horns on his head resembling those of a stag, two long whiskers, one emerald eye, the other one shut. His scales were like obsidian or black diamonds, and he had five claws on each of his paws. He also had a mane made out of flames. His tail and hindquarters remained within the waters.

"R-Ryuujin-sama!" one of the fishermen shouted in disbelief.

'_Don't want to upset any kami..._' Ryoku thought to himself, then spoke aloud, "I am not Ryuujin. I am Ryoku."

"W-what m-may we do for you, Ryoku-sama?" one of the fishermen asked, trembling as he and the others were in the presence of a dragon.

"Tell me..what troubles the land," Ryoku said, it was the only thing he could think of to say.

"Th-the land? Ryoku-sama?" the fisherman asked.

"The land," Ryoku said.

"Many troubles Ryoku-sama," the fisherman said.

"What troubles?" Ryoku asked, patiently as if he had all of eternity to wait for an answer.

"F-Famine...e-earthquakes...f-fires..many m-more, Ryoku-sama," the fisherman informed him.

"I will leave some fish for you to take home with you," Ryoku said, them made the whirlpool and the storm overhead dissipate, he also made most of the fish swim away, leaving a small part of himself in each and every one of them, what he left was a sliver of his magic.

He then left the waters, and flew high into the sky, his magic allowing him to fly. Once he was below the clouds, he burst into flames only to reform as a black phoenix, and flew in the direction of land. From the memories of the denizens of the deep he knew the geography of the seas and oceans, as well as their edges on the shores of land.

The fishermen watched as what they believed to be a god had risen out of the sea, and left them fish to catch and feed on, most of which they would sell to their neighbors, as even the little that were left could possibly feed a nation.

As Ryoku flew over the waters and waves of this new world he did not notice a presence beneathe the waves watching him. Its eyes focusing on him, and seemingly to prepare to lauch itself out of the water.

A few minutes of following and watching Ryoku fly over the water, it lauched itself at Ryoku with blinding speed. Luckily, Ryoku sensed the approach of the beast, one whose killing intent was nigh overwhelming.

Ryoku flew out of the way, dodging the gigantic maw which the beast possessed. He then tried to gain access to its mind, but its protections and will was too great even for him, his best efforts were repulsed, and the beast moved a few meters back, to guage Ryoku and try and decipher his abilities.

This battle began as soon as day turned to night, which was why Ryoku could not make out any other features the beast possessed save for its single eye and its ten tails. It looked like a mass of solid black shadows. It was darker than the night itself.

~you, i know what you are~ Ryoku said, ~you are the juubi aren't you~

"**~What gave me away?~"** it said, **"~Was it the tails?~"**

~could have been~ Ryoku said, ~you have been sowing the seeds of destruction haven't you~

"**~Man has long been doing such, for a long time now...I have merely come to the decision that life is meaningless, and must be destroyed~"**

~you would destroy the world, tired of life as you are, you must have witnessed a lot of destruction in your lifetime~

"**~Man made the world in his image and likeness, then destroyed it, and recreated it once more. Man has not had a problem with destroying itself. But never have they utterly and completely destroyed themselves. I alone possess the power to accomplish that goal.~"**

~then i hate disappoint, but i cannot allow such a tradgedy to occur~

"**~I feel the pain of the world in my cold black heart, I know she suffers, moaning and crying for the agony to end. Life is a disease, one whose only cure is destruction, total annihilation.~"**

~such a goal, I shall not allow, i am immortal as i am, unlike you, who will one day perish~

"**~My power is beyond all that one such as you can fathom. I am as old world, as old as life itself. I was born just as life was first conceived, and I shall die only when life has finally been put out of its misery.~"**

~the accumulated hate, destruction, dispair, pain, and agony, of the world deserves not to destroy itself and its balance~ Ryoku said, ~i may not be the one to seal you back within the hearts of man, but i will live to see the day that your mortal shell is slain, and your soul divided~

"**~My shell may be slain, and my soul be divided, but I will live on in the hearts men? Therefore I have proved myself immortal to even one such as you. I feel the power of a god radiating from your soul. But even one such as you is unable to split my soul and immortality? Then I am greater than the gods.~"**

~pitiful fool of a living emotion, embodiement of negativity you may be, but plain as day you were not meant live free as you have for so long as you have been free~

"**~You seem to be knowledgeable of what I be, yet you insist that I be stopped, that I be sealed, that I be locked away, and even beaten. You are a fool. No mortal man may perform such a miracle. I shall split the world before such a man would dare to defy me.~"**

~a challenge then, from myself to you, as an avatar of a god to a devil such as youself~ Ryoku challenged, ~what say you devil?~

The Juubi rose to its full height blocking out the light of the stars, covering half the world in darkness.

"**~Knowing you shall fail, and I shall succeed, what is this challege you dare to lay before me?~"**

~i will find a man worthy of Kami's power, one that shall seal you away, split your soul, eliminate your influence, absolve your corruption, and render you powerless~ Ryoku said, ~if you can whistand the might of the champion of Kami, you may destroy the world and i will not stand in your way~

"**~I could destroy you now, but..I will accept this challege, only to prove how foolish the gods of heaven and earth are for sending such a creature as you to proclaim my defeat at the hands of a mortal.~"**

~we are in agreement then~

"**~We are. I will no longer hinder your travel, but on the day this champion loses, you and all of life will end and cease to exist.~"**

~agreed, for I shall not lose~ Ryoku said.

"**~What is your name O' creature of life and healing? I wish to know the name of ye who stood firm under my unyielding thirst for death and destruction.~"**

~i am Ryoku, Avatar of Aetas~ Ryoku responded, ~and what of you, creature of destruction and death?~

"**~I as you know am Juubi no Shiryuu.~" **the beast said as it sank back beneath the waves, preparing to begin the systematic destruction of life and of the world.

It had finally chosen to come out of its hidden domain as it had once heard a prophecy about the end of the world. A messenger of the gods would come and been seen flying over the sea, and it would choose the champion of Kami. This champion would be the last line of defense against the end of the world, and he who would end it. He saw Ryoku as the sign that he may begin his destruction, that the fates had finally permitted his dreams to come to pass, all he would have to do was to destroy the champion of Kami.

As the ten tails sank back into the deep and dark depths of the sea, Ryoku continued his journey to land, as he needed to begin his search for this prodigy, the one that would one day be known to the world as the Rikudou Sennin, the Sage of the Six Paths.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter three**_

_*_

_*_

As he was nearing land, Ryoku once again burst into flames and changed back into his human form. As he descended back to the ground, he positioned himself in such a way that he would land on the water on his feet. He wore a body suit that covered every part of his body, it had a hood to cover his head, and a pull up mask to cover his face. It had spells weaved into it, and seals place on it, that gave it the ability to blend the itself and its wearer with the surroundings.

He landed on the waters with nary a splash.

He stood on the surface of the water, power radiating from his invisible being, sending the water visibly moving away from his position. He then began to walk towards the shore, where some people were standing, possibly waiting for the fishermen to return from their fishing trip.

As he approached the shore, the people noticed the ripples in the water, and backed away from the water's edge, wary of the phenomenon. But one among them was not as frightened as the others.

"Your imperfect illusion does not scare me," a young woman's voice was heard over the hushed silence of the group of waiting women, "Show yourself, what are your intentions."

He said nothing, and simply waited for the young woman to show herself first. Which is what she did, she came out of the crowd, held in her hands were small bottles.

"Why should I show myself, when it seems you can already see me?" Ryoku spoke, his voice a little melodious, parts of his phoenix form still present in his system, "I think..I will keep my anonymity for a little while longer."

"I think not," she said and let loose a barrage of throwing knives which she had been hiding in her sleeves and had flung from them with practiced ease, "Get back to the village, I'll deal with whatever this is!" she told the other people. They did as they were told.

"You attack me, yet I have done nothing to warrant such an action," Ryoku said. The throwing knives floating in the air, inches away from Ryoku.

"You try and sneak up on a group of women, and refuse to show yourself, that is enough provocation," the young woman said, readying her bottles.

"Your smoke bombs and hallucinogens wont work on me," Ryoku said, reading her mind to predict her actions.

"How are you so sure that that is what I plan on doing?" she asked, putting up a brave and confident front.

"Your mind is an open book, your soul is left unprotected," he said, then allowed his single green eye to appear, "You are the famed Mistress of Illusions, defeater of many a warrior with your poisons, your tricks, and such. Some master you are."

"You know of me, and yet you mock me," she said, unsure of what to do, "Prepare yourself."

The eye blinked out of existence, and Ryoku jumped off of the water's surface and landed on the sand. His form shifting once again to his lung dragon form, still invisible, but allowing the sand to show where he stood. Two large dents in the sand marking where his feet were, and a trail of flattened sand where the rest of his tail was.

"You do not know of me, and yet you are not weary," Ryoku said just before he dropped his own illusion, his clothes were transfered to his mindscape as he transformed, "Now ask yourself, do you feel lucky?"

Upon seeing a dragon she instantly dropped her bottles, which being bottles broke upon impact with the ground. Ryoku knew that it was not an attack, so he reacted in a manner which would neutralize the effects of the chemicals within the bottles, he made the wind blow it all away.

"R-R-Ryuu..." she said as she slumped on the ground and pointed at him with one finger, her whole body trembling.

"Pathetic, I had hoped to encouter a true mistress of illusions," Ryoku said as he rose into the sky and flew away from the coast, but while she was still within earshot, he advised her, "A true illusion is created when you affect all the senses of your victim."

When he was finally out of sight, which was made possible by his turning invisible and turning into a human once again, the young woman stood up from the sand, and walked back to the village to inform the people that the threat had been dealt with. Once again adding to her fame, while secretly being fearful of the dragon ever finding out that her life continued to be one filled with lies, and tricks.

Ryoku knew, as his flying away was partially an illusion, he had stayed within mental distance, and was still accessing her mind as she told the villagers of a false tale as to how she had beated an illusioned dragon in a battle of illusions and wits.

'_I wonder how long I have til that bastard comes to destroy the world.._' Ryoku wondered, he had a feeling that the blood of the Mother of Genjutsu would come from that young woman he had just given some advice to, with that base covered, Ryoku only needed to find the child that would become the Father of Ninjutsu, and the shinobi way of life.

#

The fish that had been caught by the fishermen, contained traces of Ryoku's magic, and when consumed by the people during meals, the magic was also absorbed, which unlocked a hidden potential in the people. This hidden potential was the unlocking of what would one day be known as chakra, the mixture of spiritual and physical energy present in all living things, as well as in nature. This energy was present in all things, but had been locked away for many thousands of years, and had been widely used by people in eras past. Those people were the occult practicioners, and ancient warriors of forgotten ages, during the time before technology covered the globe.

The world's history was thus_._

_There was a time where the world was ruled by the fist, where the strongest lived and weak failed to survive._

_Then when the first weapon was created, the world was ruled by the sword, and armies fought for dominance of the whole world._

_Then when the sword gave way to the gun, technology began its reign, and battles were won and lost with technology's aid._

_In the beginning when there was only the fist, there was also energy, potent and destructive, calm and purifying. It was wielded by individuals with the gifts of patience, the energy used for destruction and healing. In its pure form it was neutral, but in the hands of these individuals it was power. _

_During the age of the sword, it was power, as more and more were able to wield this potent energy, causing many great disasters and many hundreds of death. Man had chosen the path of violence to rule and conquer the world._

_But when the age of technology arrived, this potentenergy, this source of nigh limitless power was forgotten, sealed away by the disbelief of the people. The benefits of technology and the sheer destructive force possible by such things too much to disregard. _

_Thus this hidden energy, this potential was sealed away from the world, only a select few able to wield it for a time, and even they eventually succumbed to the temptation of technology._

_As time wore on the power of technology grew to great, that in the hands of greedy men the world was once again changed. The world was cracked, like a puzzle with all its pieces strewn about. Brother fought brother for dominance. Survival of the fittest once again the prime directive of all human life. _

_Where at some points in time peace had reigned for short periods, allowing the soldiers and warriors of the world some time to rest their bones, their nerves, and their wits. After technology grew to great, not a second could be spared for rest. The world was at war with itself._

_T'was not only humans fighting humans, but the nature as well. The world was dying, nature no longer able to sustain all life._

_Then the creators of the world intervened, before the world was completely destroyed, these beings of unimaginable power and origin plucked the few innocents in the world, and set them aside for a time, until the world was recast, remade. Made once again inhabitable, but this time set with a few limitations, one of which being the dependence on technology, electronics and their ilk were made harder to utilize, and thoughts of recreating the weapons and things of the technological age were made incoceivable to most minds, only a few of the technologies were allowed to continue being used in the world._

_For a time after the recreation, the world was at peace. There were massive continents, where nature outnumbered men, and the world was remade in such a way that nature would always for all time outnumber men._

_Man once again lived by the hand, then by the sword, but never again did it pass forward into something more. And the energy wielded as power continued to be sealed away, only an unsealed power would be able to unlock the locked potential of all human, plant, and animal life._

_One final safeguard was left in place, one final protection for the world was placed into play. The Ten Tailed Beast, Juubi no Shiryuu. _

_As there must always be a balance to all things, so there was also a balance to all the life, the neutrality, and the positive things. The Juubi, embodiment of all the pain, suffering, anguish, despair, hurt, sorrow, anger, rage, and hate. _

_Then a prophecy was made, when a fire bird could be seen in the sky, the world was to undergo a final judgement. Would humanity lose, and so would the world, and the creators of the world would allow for it to be destroyed, never again to be recreated. It would be replaced by something less uncontrolled._

Power had been unlocked, man would once again discover its might and greatness. The fires of war would once again be lit. And the world would be shrouded in darkness once again.

Some gods had chosen the side of neutrality, while a few had chosen to grant humanity a fighting chance. To even the playing field a little bit, they would grant one single individual the power to defeat the Ten Tailed Beast.

What the gods, immortals, and creators of the world did not count on was the interferance of an anomaly in all their plans, the arrival of Ryoku.

This was man's final chance to prove that the world could be left in their hands.

#

_After the passing of a few years..._

The world had become a war torn place, brother killing brother, father killing son, son killing father. Peace had turned sour in the minds of men, and war was the new delicacy. There were some pockets of resistance to these wars, but soon these small pockets were going to be wiped out, if nothing was done.

Ryoku had heard of a boy who had just recently survived the sacking of his village, but people were wary of such a child. Young as he might have been, no one dared go near him. So he travelled the lands, searching for a companion, and a reason to go on. His only reason as of late was to find something to do, he had watched as his whole family was killed right before his very eyes. The lone survivor of a massacre. Those responsible for his loneliness let him live that he may spread the word.

Ryoku was searching for this child, so far he had not heard of any other incident that a child had been allowed to live. Innocence lost, it sounded vaguely familiar to his ears and to his mind. He sought out the child.

He found the child in the midst of a battle, how such a child had found himself in such a place, was something which even though Ryoku wanted to know, was inconsequential to making sure that the boy remained alive.

He teleported to the child's side, unnoticed by the fighters.

"Kid," kneeling beside the child, he whispered, "If you want to live, don't move, and just watch me. Do you want to live?"

The child only nodded his head.

Cracking his knuckles, Ryoku joined the fray. Unarmed, he surprised the fighters, killing none, but rendering all unable to continue to fight. A punch here, a palm thrust there. A kick here, a knee in the gut there. He never missed, and all his opponents fell to the ground in pain.

"W-what are y-you?" one of the downed, but still conscious, fighters asked.

"Does it really matter?" Ryoku asked glaring in the man's direction, his single visible eye changing to the slightly slitter form it took whenever Ryoku was a dragon, "Anyways, why were you fighting? And why was this child here?"

"C-child?" one of the others asked, "What child?"

"The child hiding behind me," Ryoku said as he stepped away from the child allowing him to be seen.

"Aaah the cursed child!" one fighter screamed forgetting that he was in pain, he stood up and high tailed it out of there, but before he could take more than ten steps he dropped to the ground dead.

"He..he..he's dead..." one of them crawled to the dead man's side and whispered after finding no pulse.

The child at his feet looked to be no older than five, and already he was hailed as something close to a demon. Civilians treated him as if he was the plague, and even warriors viewed him as cursed.

"You will be coming with me," Ryoku told the child, "I will give you a purpose."

"Okay," the child whispered in reply, allowing himself to be carried by Ryoku.

After Ryoku picked up the child and held him in his arms, he simply vanished from the spot, teleporting to where he had left his horse. One of many he had acquired from some bandits that had thought to rob and kill him.

He placed the child on the horse's back, then climbed on himself.

"Why?" the child asked, as the horse continued to run, heading for whatever or wherever Ryoku wished to go.

"Because I wanted to," Ryoku answered as he kept his eyes and ears open, constantly scanning their surroundings for an ambush or something similar.

"Who are you?" the child asked after a while.

"I am Ryoku," he introduced himself as the horse they were riding jumped over a ravine, an impossible feat which the child failed to notice as he held on to Ryoku for dear life.

"I am Bachiatari," the child said.

"I don't think that name suits you," Ryoku said, then said after a few minutes, "From now on you shall be known as Takeshi."

"Takeshi," the child repeated, in order to get a handle on his new name, "I am Takeshi."

#

**'~_He has chosen. I shall now act~'_** the Juubi thought as he felt the flow of holy power flow from the heavens to a container on the earth.

He could now begin splitting the world, carving it up, and making its systematic destruction more manageable and quick.

The world consisted of a massive continent, and a massive ocean. Soon that would change as the beast would split the world, and create continents. Severing ties and creating nations, only for those to be crushed by his awsome might in the future after defeating humanity's champion.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter four**_

_*_

_*_

The horse stopped running when they reached the top of a mountain. There was a small house there, situated by the cliff, and overlooking the land. There were trees for miles around, and no sign of other human life.

The house was relatively small, it had only one floor, it consisted of only one room. Cooking looked to be done outdoors, as did bathing. Sleeping was probably the only thing done indoors.

"From now on, you will live here, with me," Ryoku said, and led the child into the house.

Tekeshi had never seen so many scrolls in all his short life. The shelves in the house were filled to the brim with such holders of knowledge, and there were even more scattered on the floor, as if they were rugs or floor mats. Even the walls of the small house had scibbles on them, details of fighting styles, and other information, the ceiling even had a map of the world.

Ryoku noticed his young charge's widened eyes.

"I know its a mess, but until now I lived mostly alone," Ryoku said.

Aside from the shelves and all the scrolls, there was a single bed, a closet, and some kitchen ware.

"Where will I sleep?" Takeshi asked shyly.

"You can have the bed," Ryoku said, "I prefer to sleep outside."

"Oh," the child said.

"A few rules before I leave," Ryoku said.

"Leave?" the child asked.

"Yes, leave," Ryoku said, "I have to go hunting, there's no food here except for fruits, but you need some meat on those bones."

"Oh."

"First and foremost," Ryoku said, "When I tell you to do something you do it, no questions asked, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Second, you are not to leave the house at night," Ryoku said.

"Ok."

"Third, if someone you do not know approaches, you are to stay in the house," Ryoku said.

"Uh..why?"

"No one knows that there are people living here," Ryoku said, "Meaning we do not know of their intentions, so stay in the house when someone you don't know appears."

"But what if they enter the house?" the child asked.

"Don't worry, no one but you and I may enter the house," Ryoku said.

"Is that all?" the child asked.

"For now," Ryoku said, he then turned around to leave the house, "For the mean time I want you to find something to read, I know you know how. When I return I expect you to have learned something."

"Alright," the child said and began to browse the shelves of scrolls for something to read.

Ryoku had seen the child's eyes, after taking the child in, he noticed that his eyes had changed, they now had rings in them, rings within rings. A semi-hypnotic gaze, with many untold abilities, abilities which Ryoku hoped the child would one day be able to master.

As the child was perusing Ryoku's sources of knowledge, he did not see Ryoku jump off the cliff only to tranform into a large hawk and go hunting like the bird of prey that he had turned into.

As the child browsed the many scrolls he found a book tucked away in a corner, it was small and black, and for some reason, unknown even to him, he opened and began reading it. It was Ryoku's copy of The Legend of the Gutsy Ninja, he had made a copy of the book which was found in Alexandre's extremely extensive and mind bogglingly large library.

Ryoku as a hawk had been searching for some deer, or any other large game, and ended finding some wolves also searching for some food. The more eyes and ears the better for the hunt, so he connected with their minds, and infected them with a portion of his magic, enough to give them a little boost. He had unwittingly created the first set of summons for the world. Among the many scrolls in his home, a new one was added, the Wolf Summong Scroll.

With the ears of the wolves, he found a herd of deer, and made use of the pack to encircle the herd, making sure that none would escape. He then turned invisible, and like death swooped down and caught two in his enlarged talons, then he let loose the wolves, and they quickly fell on the herd.

As he headed back to his home, he noted made sure he could find the wolves again the next time he went hunting.

He landed on the cliff face as a dragon, the Horntail kind, and flung up the two deer and propelled himself upward, reverting to human form to catch his catch. And began skinning them, and taking them apart, separating what could be used for potions, what could be eaten, and what could be turned into whatever else. Not a part would be wasted.

Minutes later, Takeshi came out of the house, the sun had yet to set, which made it ok for him to leave the house, in one hand was the book he had found.

"I see you found something of interest," Ryoku said, facing the food he was preparing, acting as if he had eyes at the back of his head, which at this point could be true.

"Yes sir," the child said.

"Tell me three things you have learned," Ryoku instructed.

"Never to give up," Takeshi said.

"That's one."

"The books is like what is happening in the world today," the child said.

"That's two."

"The main character's name is Naruto."

"Well, I guess, I'll have to accept that," Ryoku said, "From this day forward, you are to refer to me as sensei, or Ryoku-sense. Understand?"

"Hai, Ryoku-sensei," Takeshi said, acknowledging the role of Ryoku.

"Every day, when I leave the house, I want you to learn," Ryoku instructed as he handed the child some food, "And whenever I return I want you to tell me three new things you have learned."

"Hai, sensei," the child said happily, finding a purpose.

"Eat up, then go to bed, and remember not to go outside or even look outside at night," Ryoku said, "There are things that you are still not ready to see."

*

When Ryoku was sure that the child was asleep, he ventured out of the house and spread his wings, and flew into the sky as a black phoenix. He had felt a connection to several groups of different animals, most of which were creatures of the sea. He went to investigate.

He found the ones he felt a connection with, strong connections with, waiting for him near the shore.

"Sensei," a giant turtle said as Ryoku landed on a rock.

"Sensei?" Ryoku said, confused, then recalled the summons he had read about in the comics, "Ahh, I get it. But what do you want?"

"Teach us," the turtle said on behalf of all the present creatures of the waters. There were many of them, and suddenly he knew that he had some more new scrolls in the house to look over and catalog.

"I will return here every other night, and teach you the ways of man, and teach you how to defend yourselves, how to fight," Ryoku said, "Is that agreeable?"

Their minds had been advanced, they were now more than sentient thanks to Ryoku's earlier meddling. They were the unschooled summon creatures of the future. But this was only one aspect, there were still more, and now that he knew how to create them. He would go about making those others as well.

But for now he would have to focus on the sea creatures, and tomorrow he would tend to the wolves, who he was sure he had also turned into more than sentient beings.

He would have to bring them to his home, since having to go about looking for them would be quite the hassle.

#

The emergeance of the Ten Tailed Beast had affected many people. Its presence in the world had accelerated the development of the energy which would one day be known as chakra. But so far the only applications that people had found were in enhancing strength, speed, and their senses.

The lines were quickly being drawn, there were those that were mercenaries, and there were those small pockets of resistance against the wars occuring all over the place. These small groups, small villiges were the pregenitors of the hidden villages. These were the hideouts of the primitive ninja.

In one of these remote villages lived a small family, it was the family of the famed Mistress of Illusion. She was finally too old to do any mercenary work and now simply helped her children and grandchildren learn her art. One of her grandchildren would later grow up to be the true Mistress of Illusion, as her imagination grew, and her mastery of affecting the senses of her victims grew with her. Hers was the first official use of bringing chakra out, and directly using it against others.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter five**_

_*_

_*_

The days wore on, and they then turned into weeks, and then to months, and the next thing Ryoku knew, it had finally been a year. Takeshi had followed each and every instruction Ryoku gave him, each day hoping to be of more use to the man that gave him a purpose in life, a new life, and a new name.

He had grown in that one year. No longer was he a scrawny kid, and no one would be able to recognize him as the cursed kid. He was healthier, and stronger now. Ryuko had made sure that he became such.

He did not have the child do excerxcises, but instead filled his developing mind with knowledge.

The child had also grown used to seeing a number of different creatures appearing at his home from time to time, all of them having the ability to speak and all of them looking for Ryoku, which made him have to lead them or entertain them while his sensei was gone.

After around six months of being with Ryoku, Takeshi had learned that he had unique eyes. And with his unique eyes came unique abilities. He was aware that Ryoku also had unique abilites, as well as many unknown abilities, and mysteries like what he hid behind that eye patch of his. He learned to control some of the things he had found, like how to control gravity, push and pull.

Some of the time he tried to teach the animals that would visit, not all of them being able to do as he did. But there were those few that were able to do as he did. There were seven of them all in all. He had made seven personal summons, and he was not even aware of it yet.

Within the second year of Takeshi's stay with Ryoku, he had learned even more things, more knowledge was stored into his head, as well as many virtues, and wisdom pertaining to many vices. He learned how to smoke after finding Ryoku sitting on the edge of the cliff, and smoking. Somehow the unhealthy effects of smoking did not really bother Ryoku. Takeshi asked him how did it not affect him, Ryoku simply answered that he did not let it affect him, and left his student to figure it out.

As he did not want to get himself sick from smoking, Takeshi practiced with the smoke of an open fire. His frustration is what intriduced him to chakra. He had somehow molded the his spiritual energy and physical energies, which combined and created a kind of filter which let in only good air, and kept all the bad out. It was one of the things he told Ryoku that he had learned.

"I will not teach you anything about that ability," Ryoku told him, "That will be something for you to master on your own. What I will eventually teach you, is taijutsu, and how to fight with the many weapons I know how to use."

"Hai, sensei," Takeshi said, grateful for his teacher's tutelage.

Later on in his childhood life, Takeshi showed no signs of being socially inept, as his socialization skills had also grown due to all the rapidly evolving summon creatures, all of whom were basing their new society on human society, new and old, their basis coming from things that Ryoku told them about, and things that they had learned from Takeshi when he read to them things from the scrolls and the few books that he had managed to find.

When Takeshi was finally fifteen, the age when someone was generally considered an adult, Ryoku decided that it would be a good time as any to bring the teen back into human civilization. Get him used to dealing with humans, and not just animals, even though they acted human most of the time.

The teen didn't mind and was actually very excited at the prospect of meeting new people. Not that he didn't enjoy the company of his sensei, but people were people, and none seemed to be able to survive the journey up to their home.

Takeshi had taken care of the many non-summons that Ryoku had in pens within the vicinity of the house. Which was why he was able to ride their horses bareback, without fear of falling. Ryoku rode differently, he lay down, actually lay down on the back of the horse, and simply did not fall off. When Takeshi asked how to do such a thing, stick to the back of a horse, Ryoku just told him to figure it out.

When they got to the outskirts of the nearest village to their mountain home, Ryoku dismounted and dismissed the horses back to their pen, a trick that Takeshi had been told he would learn if he managed to find the scrolls on seals.

"I will be going to the market," Ryoku told his student, "While you will do the same thing you do whenever I leave you."

"Learn three new things," Takeshi said, "Anything else?"

"Learn the names of three people," Ryoku said, "And since you seem to really want to do something, do not get into a fight, if for some reason you do get into a fight, play dead, alright."

"Yes, sir," Takeshi said. Playing dead was literally what that sounded like. He would drop to the ground, slow his breathing and force his heart rate to drop to the bare minimum, with the aid of chakra, which he had excellent control over, even though Ryoku didn't teach him how to use that. It was just something he learned how to do on his own. Ryoku had taught him how to fight, close quarters combat, and long range, as well as mid-range.

"And if that doesn't work?" Takeshi asked.

"Retreat," Ryoku said, "If you can't even do that, come look for me."

"Yes sir.."

"One more thing," Ryoku said.

"Sensei?"

"Under no circumstances are you to kill anyone, understand?" Ryoku said.

"Hai, can I go in now?" Takeshi asked impatiently.

"Hai, hai, get going," Ryoku said, "We will leave for home, at sundown, remember to meet here at sundown."

"Hai, sensei," Takeshi said as he hurried into the village.

'_That boy..._' Ryoku thought exasperated, and went to follow the youth into the village to do his groceries, he needed some new seeds and the like, as well as to charge the local produce with some magic, as he had learned was the cause for chakra use becoming well known.

*

Takeshi having never really been able to freely wander around a village, did not mean that he did not know about the ways of the world. He was, after all, not sheltered as he learned about the world through all the stories Ryoku told him about the world, and through the library like house he lived in. He learned early on that there were many mysteries in the world, that his sensei knew the answers to. He also knew not to try and figure out how the map on the ceiling kept on changing, when he first got arrived there the continent still looked whole. But after a few years he noticed that the world seemed to be made up of a number of continents, all of which were roughly the same size as one another.

His senses and relfexes had been honed to near perfection due to all the things he had to avoid whenever the faster summons came over to visit. He had to dodge flying fruit, and other foods, as well as catch all the falling children of the summons that managed to fall from here and there. On some occassions he had to climb down the cliff face to get some things that had fallen over, and he had to dodge things that Ryoku would decide to drop and not fall to his doom, though he was sure that Ryoku wouldn't allow him to die, he didn't want to have a repeat of what had happened when he, at one time, failed to report learning anything new. Ryoku had been disappointed with him for the rest of that week.

It was thanks to these quick reflexes and senses that he was able to catch a girl his age before she hit the floor, as well as the things she was carrying, after she had tripped on her own clothes.

"Careful miss, I wont always be here to catch you," he said as helped her get back on her feet, as well as returned to her the things she was carrying, "Here, I think these plates are yours."

"Uh..thanks..this is a pretty small village, how come I've never seen you before?" she said, blushing slightly.

"Ah, eh.." While Takeshi was used to dealing with others, he had never actually dealt with a human girl before, "I'm visiting while my sensei gets our gorceries from the market."

"Oh, so you live near here?" she asked.

"Not really," he said, "I kind of live on one of the mountains near here."

"You live on a mountain? Wow," she said, "Uhm..I think I should be going, I need to deliver these to someone."

"Let me help you carry them, just in case you trip again," Takeshi offered and took the plates back.

He walked with the girl continuing to talk with her, along the way avoiding a number of running people, which amazed the girl at his ability to avoid danger, falling, and dropping the plates.

"How do you keep doing that?" she asked after he dodged out of the way of the fifth group of running people.

"Do what?" he asked perplexed.

"Avoid getting hit, or tripping for that matter," she clarified.

"Lots and lots of practice," he answered.

She looked a little curous and bit confused as well. So he elaborated.

"My sensei's other students have a tendency to throw things, and each other," Takeshi said, "I usually either to get out of the way, or have to catch what or who they throw."

"Oh, they sound like a very rowdy bunch," she said, "What exactly does your sensei teach you?"

"Many things actually," he said, "Mostly he teaches me how to avoid getting hurt."

A few more minutes of walking and talking, they finally reached their destination. As Takeshi handed back the plates a band of ruffians ran by and bumped into the girl as she was handed the plates, causing them to fall, only for Takeshi to once again catch them, this time with invisible strings right before they hit the floor. It caught the attention of the ruffians, as well as the people around them.

"Uh..looks like trouble," Takeshi said, then whispered to the girl, "Maybe you should finish delivering th plates, while I make sure that nothing bad happens."

"Okay," she said as she got the plates and entered the house they were in front of.

Takeshi had been suspecting that the ruffians had been the ones that had been trying to get him to drop the plates the whole time, as well as were the actual cause the girl had tripped in the first place. It also looked like they looked pissed off and were wanting to start a fight.

While his sensei had told him not to get into a fight, he would have to break that rule a little as he needed to look like he got beat to death or something before he could convincingly play dead.

"How the hell did you do that?" one of the ruffians demanded, referring to the way that Takeshi had caught the plates that final time.

"I dunno, it just happened," he said.

"Tell us," the ruffians said, "We know you know."

As it really looked like a fight was about to start, the people that gathered and wanted to know how he had caught the plates suddenly disappeared, leaving only Takeshi and the ruffians in the street.

"If you wont tell us, we'll beat the information out of you," they said to him.

"Tch, whatever," he said, and crumpled after he was punched in the gut. He was out for the count after the first hit. He instantly played dead.

When the ruffians noticed that he did not get up after that first hit, they thought that he was faking, so they hit him a few times to check.

Takeshi had numbed his nerves and muscles using chakra. He didn't feel a thing.

Then one of his attackers checked to see if he was breathing or he had a heartbeat.

"I..I..I think I k-killed him," the one that checked told his companions.

"This w-was just s-supposed to be a test," one of his companions said.

"S-shit," one of the others said, "Run!"

They retreated from the scene.

Before Takeshi let his body return to normal the door to the house opened, and he really couldn't let anyone know of his ability yet.

He felt warm hands touch his body, checking if he was alive or just unconscious. He remained dead to the world.

"H-He's dead," it was the girl he had accompanied, she mumbled, but he heard her say, "He wasn't supposed to die, they were just supposed to test him...not kill him.."

She left soon after, and when he was sure no one was around to see him. He stood up, and went in search of his sensei.

He took note to remember the girl's energy signature, that which was unique to everyone. He learned how to detech such things from his sensei, who claimed that was how he could tell that he had a book in hand that first time he found the book.

The girl's chakra pool was quite large. He saw it through his illusioned eyes. It was one of his eyes' abilities, seeing through illusions.

*

"You ran in to them then," Ryoku said as they were walking back to the mountain.

"Them?" Takeshi asked.

"The ninja," Ryoku said.

"They really were?"

"They were, larger than normal pools," Ryoku said.

"I only noticed the girl's," Takeshi admitted.

"A girl huh," Ryoku said, his senses alert as they always were, he noticed that they were being surrounded as well as followed. He stopped walking.

"What is it sensei?"

"We are being surrounded," Ryoku informed his student, "Can you not sense them?"

"I...Yes, I can," Takeshi said, "How do we proceed?"

"Use your tricks," Ryoku said, referring to his pupil's ninjutsu arsenal, "Incapacitate, but do not kill."

"Do I get to show off?" Takeshi asked.

"Only if you have to," Ryoku said, and prepared himself by turning invisible, following him in this action was his student.

Takeshi sent himself underground.

By the time their would be attackers finally attacked, they found the trail empty, and their targets gone.

"They escaped...how?" one of the would be attackers wondered aloud.

They had been totally fooled. They did not know that they were now the prey, and the hunted were now the hunters.

The tables had instantly turned, and it began when the first of their group was pulled into the ground. Hands shot up from the dirt and grabbed hold of a man's ankles, pulling him into the dirt, replacing the body that had previously been where he ended up being. The man was instantly knocked out, in order not to alert his comrades of the danger they were all in.

Takeshi's next victim found himself hogtied and hung on the branch of a nearby tree, he was gagged then knocked out. The next man witnseed his worst nightmare come to life, but was unable to scream due to Takeshi instantly gagging him just as the illusion took effect. He proceeded to take out his hald of the would be attackers, nothing flashy, but everything he used was quick, efficient and used only a minimum amount of energy.

When he was done, he teleported himself up above the canopy and immdiately summoned one of his personal summons, a giant eagle that shared his eyes. He stood on its head and watched his sensei work.

Ryoku enjoyed toying with his victims, he took them all out one at a time. Each victim knowing in advance that it would be his turn, just as one of his comrades fell. None were able to warn the other. None were able to move, much more get away. He took each one out with brutal efficiency, utilizing every little thing, without revealing too much. He was as fast and silent as the wind. He blended in with the shadows, or that was what it looked like to his victims. He struck when they least expected it, and the trembled when he whispered in their ear all the ways he could kill them.

When he was done knocking them all out, he looked up at Takeshi and the next second he was standing infront of his student.

"Now what?" Takeshi asked.

"We go home, and make sure that the way up is heavily fortified," Ryoku said, "I fear that we might have to move sooner than planned."

"We were going to move?" Takeshi asked.

"Yes," Ryoku said, "We will live in the desert for a little while."

"Alright," Takeshi said, "But what of the animals, and the summons?"

"The animals we will seal away," Ryoku said, "The summons will know that we have moved."

"Alright, sensei."

"Now, tell me," Ryoku said as the eagle flew them the rest of the way home, "What have you learned?"

"Uh..."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter six**_

_*_

_*_

The desert was a harsh place, and only the most hardened of men could ever hope to survive there, much more live there. But that is what Ryoku and Takeshi had been doing for the past two years. The teen was now seventeen, a master of most of his abilities by his standards anyway, but at the same time he was still only tapping the surface of the ocean when it came to ninjutsu. Ryoku also placed him at mid-level when it came to seals or fuuinjutsu. Martial arts wise, he was by no means a master, but he was steadily getting there.

The two years that the teacher and student had spent in the desert had been mostly good to them. Takshi figuring out how to utilize the sands to his advantage, able to infuse it with his chakra permanently allowing him to move the sands at whim, and to a certain extent the rest of the desert.

It was here that he was finally able to convert his chakra into wind natured chakra, or wind as he referred to it as, such terms would only be used later on in the future. He had managed to master earth while on the mountain as well as magma, gravity, and magnetism.

There were many dangers in the desert, none of which were people. One of the most dangerous of things were sand sharks, sharks that lived in the sand and not in the sea. They were mostly scavengers, eating the remains of whatever animal of human managed to die on the sands, or on occassion whatever bird managed to fly too low, and get caught in their jaws.

Those beasts were untameable, no matter how many times Ryoku tried, he could not form any contract with any of them. Their minds were also far too crowded with instinct, and violence. There was only food on their minds, food and blood. The desert was a wasteland, one where people from everywhere else ended up dumping the countless dead from the many wars that had overrun the continent. The sharks were rarely never fed.

Takeshi, while not training or studying, had taken on the job of ridding the world of the blasted things. There were simply far too many of the things, and they seemed to grow in number every time there was new blood on the sands. Ryoku had explained to him that the blood held within it the bloodlust of the dead, the never ending hate for he that had slain him. The want for revenge, for violence. The sands had a way of washing out all the good and leaving all the bad. The unburied dead, not given the decency of a proper burial, not given the right to drink a bottle or even a saucer of sake. No prayers. No one seemed to care.

So Takeshi took it upon himself to care. Each time he managed to kill one of the sharks, he would pray for the soul or souls that dwelt within, and with his eyes he could see them flow out and fade away to join the other souls in the after life, some choosing later on in reincarnating, while other being barred from such fates. The few souls that were truly evil in life and in death had to be fought and defeated, and Takeshi had to keep finding new ways, as it seemed even the dead could learn new tricks.

The sharks were rather easy to kill for some reason, all that was needed to be done was get them out of the sand. A few wind jutsus and the things were hanging in the air, actually causing them harm consisted of slashing their bellies open and dousing them with cold water of all things. Finding them was also an easy to do task, as all that was needed was either a dead body, or blood, and Takeshi kept finding ways to get the stuff.

He patrolled the desert searching not only for the sharks, but for dead bodies that had not yet been consumed, and blood. He knew how to make and use sealing scrolls which is where he stored all that he found.

Killing evil spirit was a freaky past time, but doing so made his list of newly learned things grow exponentially, especially considering that Ryoku had made him share twenty-seven things now that he was seventeen for some reason.

Ryoku found the number special for some reason, Takeshi had asked on countless occassions why the number was so special, but every time Ryoku would always give the same answer, "look it up, find it, I have the answer somewhere, writting on a scroll or a book or a page."

Takeshi had yet to find out the meaning behind the number. He still also could not figure out where his teacher kept all of his things. The closet only held his, Takeshi's, things. The personal paraphernalia of his teacher was no where to be found. He had thought that perhaps his teacher had then all sealed within storage seals tattoed on his body. But when he tried looking he received the beating of his life, as well as the knowledge that there were no such seals on his sensei's body, just the odd scar, or tattoo.

In the two years that they stayed in the desert, they had not really come into contact with any live humans, only the spirits of the dead.

And boy were there plenty of those. Limbo must have been a desert since there were so many lost souls that found themselves drifting over the sands at night. Ryoku spent his nights just as Takeshi spent his days, patrolling the sands, but instead of looking for sharks, he looked for those lost souls.

Bleach was an interesting comic to read, death gods sending people to the afterlife. He actually had two daggers that could do it, and he did, though not in the manner by which those death gods sent the souls to the afterlife. He opened up tears in space and time to send them off, all they had to do was pass through, and bam, they were lined up with the other souls awaiting judgement or whatever.

He glided on the sands at night, not needing to transform into some other creature to help him in his searching, he always found them, the new and some old that refused to pass on. The new ones were easy enough to convince, but old always claimed to be waiting for someone or something.

He had on a few occassions decided that some of the souls were just stubborn and he ambushed them as he went them on to the next plane of existence. He had discovered two ways of sending them on, one was have them walk or float there, the other was by killing them a second time. Sending on the stubborn ones in such a manner was mostly when it was kid that he had to force into the land of the really dead.

It was through these souls that Ryoku learned about the going ons in the world. Where had there been major and minor battles. Where were the hidden villages of the many erupting ninja clans. Where were the samurai gathering, who was their lord. Where were disasters sprouting up, what parts of the land had gone too far to be seen. If there were new monsters in the world, if there were new creatures. Where were the little hideaways of the summons. That sorts of things. He also received news that the world was nearer the moment when humanity would finally be judged. The Ten Tailed Beast was growing impatient, and had begun making appearances throughout the land. Causing mass death and destruction.

Eons was a long time, and the Ten Tailed Beast was losing his patience. While others would scoff at only a few more years, or a little more waiting time. The Ten Tailed Beast was not one of those others, it was selfish, and wanted to get to destroying a world that it thought was not worth taking up space in existence, which was why it had begun its path of destruction early.

Ryoku had decided long ago that he would not push his pupil into becoming the hero he was supposed to be, but would leave the choice up to his pupil. It was a life altering decision, and something which that particular person would have to chose for himself.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter seven**_

_*_

_*_

"I've never seen so many dead in all my life," Takeshi told Ryoku ona night after returning from his patrol of the desert, "There are so many wars...so much death..can we do something?"

"Can we do something?" Ryoku said amusedly, "We can do nothing."

"But.." Takeshi said, but was silenced by a look from his teacher.

"There is nothing I can do," Ryoku said, "But I did not say that there was nothing you can do."

"What can I do then?" Takeshi asked.

"You have lived twenty-one years on this world," Ryoku said, "You have mastered most of what I have taught you, and mastered things that I have not. Now you must make a choice."

"A choice?" Takeshi asked.

While it seemed that they had stayed in the desert, they had actually already returned to their mountain home. Takeshi taking regular teleportation trips to the desert to continue his patrols, a habit he had somehow formed. Always wanting to help, he was very helpful and always found a way to help those in need.

"You must now chose," Ryoku said, "Either continue and live as my pupil, or graduate to being a master, of not only your craft, but also of your life."

"Let me think on this sensei," Takeshi said.

"Make your decision quickly," Ryoku said, "The world waits for no man."

*

As Takeshi took the time to think over the decision, Ryoku found himself wandering around the base of the mountain, mindful of his surroundings. But at the same time knowing that there were people that were constantly trying to make it up the mountain in search of treasure, where such tales had sprung up, he did not know, but he suspected it was from all the traps he and Takeshi had set up around the mountain. So many dangers must have meant that there was something at the top worth protecting. Which there was, but to other people it would not be as valuable to them as it was to him.

He was not really out on a peaceful trek, he was really out looking for a certain group of individuals that had at one time in his life tried to ambush him and his pupil. They were a rowdy of ruffians, the rejects of the local hidden village, all of them had run off together after that one failed attempt at ambushing them all those years ago.

While Ryoku had only gotten better, as did Takeshi, these ruffians had not. They knew the basics when it came to chakra manipulation within the body, using it as enhancements to their strength and speed, none of them had been able to extend the use outside of their bodies.

He finally found them harrassing a caravan of travelling merchants, and so decided to interrupt their fun.

He shifted to his avatar garb and acted.

There were twenty-five of them, and one of him. Really really unfair odds, the ruffians wouldn't stand a chance.

He swiftly and silently moved behind one of the ruffians, and whipping out his blades he pulled out the man's spine, and cutting out his tongue while he was at it. Then moved on to his next victim, cutting the man in half, starting from the crotch ending with the two halves of his brain being really two halves.

He continued until there were none left of the twenty-five, then he noticed that he had killed them all, killing no longer bothered him as much, as he had been doing in for quite some time while travelling from place to place with Takeshi. It was his cover for how he had been able to buy their supplies and stuff. He worked part time as a mercenary, and was known far and wide as not only one of most expensive ones, but also as a teacher of martial arts. When he wasn't teaching his own students he went around teaching part time students.

Some ninja clans had tried to get him to join their little villages, but each and every time, he refused them.

When he usually fought he would leave some witnesses to spread tales about his greatness, which also prompted some people to try and take away his title as being the best away from him. None of those that challenged him had ever won.

This time was different, all the witnesses he needed were the merchants. But he noticed that there was still sounds of fighting further down the trail. He went to investigate and found his student there. Fighting an entire platoon of soldiers, some on horseback, others not. And he was defending a prisoners' carriage for some reason.

Ryoku had given Takeshi a long sword and a staff when he had turned eighteen, and the teen had used them ever since, with brutal efficiency. While each weapon was meant to be used by both hands, Takeshi needed only one, and sometimes literally needed only one hand to wield both weapons. He was fending off the soldiers all by himself, using techniques that he had learned from Ryoku. He fought with sword and staff not giving anything away.

'_Perhaps...I taught him a little too well..._' Ryoku thought to himself as he watched his student take on some thirty soldiers. He was sitting on a rock a little further away from where his student was fighting.

Some of the merchants that he had helped had approached him to thank him, and he waved them away telling them that he was glad to help, and happy that those ruffians had finally gotten what was coming to them. But when asked if he was planning to help in the fight that was still taking place, he said that his student could handle it. He was just watching to make sure that nothing happened.

*

Takeshi had been having a neutral time wandering the forest at the base of the mountain, when he heard some people shouting for help. One of the voices was one that he recognized from years ago, in a village that he had at one time visited and played dead as instructed by his teacher. He didn't know if it was fate or anything similar, but he knew that once again he was going to play hero, but this time he was allowed to get into a fight.

He observed the event as it transpired from the safety of the trees, it was still true, as his teacher had taught him, that most people don't bother with looking up. He spied on a group of roughly thirty soldiers, all of them having surrounded a group of roughlyt fifteen ninja, or who he believed to be ninja. He could have acted then, but there was the possibility of harming those he wished to help. So he waited for the best time to act.

He had heard from the many summons that visited him and his teacher, that the continent's rulers did not approve of these little hidden villages that ran themselves, separate from the lord of the land. The lords were having all of these free roaming fighters rounded up, and those that chose not to fight for the lord were put to death.

He could tell from his tree top perch that this group of ninja did not like the thought of working for someone that would threaten them with death.

So he watched, and waited, and he found that the best time to strike was when the soldiers were finally relaxed and moving on the road heading to wherever they kept these ninja prisoner.

As soon as they moved in an orderly column, the prisoners' carriage or cart safely between them, Takeshi jumped down from the trees, dropping smoke bombs in all directions, and replacing each and every one of the prisoners with a clone that he made on the way down. Shadow clones were wonderful things, and he had accidentally created them when his sensei told him about the possibility to make duplicates of oneself.

His sensei had used seals, so why would it not be possible to do the same with chakra. He had made hand seals that could be used to replace the functions of some of the basic seals that could be drawn, and used to regulate the flow of chakra. He was sure that someone had found a way of performing primitive ninjutsu using seals. He called them primitive as he was able to manipulate the elements using his chakra alone, and only needed to use handseals with every new idea.

When he was sure that the captives were safely away from the soldiers, he quickly got to work on trying to knock out all of the soldiers relying on the skills taught to him by his teacher, combat using his sword and staff. No ninjutsu needed yet, but he was prepared just in case he needed such things, he was already ready, his chakra was already heated and ready to flow out and affect the world.

After managing to down ten of the thirty men, he noticed his sensei watching from a rock a little ways away, a small smug smile on his lips, and a hint of pride in his eyes. Then one of horror.

Honed reflexes from years of having to avoid many dangerous things had saved him from being impaled by an arrow shot by an archer that had moved safely away from the fighting.

That was when all hell broke lose.

The former captives were released from their bonds by the masked clones, who were dressed in all black suits, hoods and face masks covering their identity. Their creator similarly dressed as they were.

He threw his sword in the direction of the archer, and had it multiply into ten copies of itself, all of which impaled the archer and four other soldiers near him, killing them all instantly.

He then jammed his staff into the ground causing a tidal wave of earth to rise up and cover five more soldiers, hardening, and with a single motion from his hands, they were dead as well. Leaving ten soldiers remaining.

Five attempted to escape, but they were instantly engulfed in big balls of fire, all of which shot out of Takeshi's mouth. The smell of burning flesh not having to be smelt by anyone as he then sent some cutting winds to slice and dice the remaining soldiers and blow away the smell of burning flesh.

When he was done, he strapped his staff to his back and summoned his sword to his hand and sheathed it in the sheath which was also on his back. Somehow he left all of the horses alive, and not one of the clones that were used as substitutes for the prisoners had suffered any damage at all.

The former captives came out of the safety of the forest and moved cautiously near him, as they had never witnessed anyone fight the way he had. The start had been relatively normal as they had heard of a mercenary that fought barehanded, or with daggers, but once the arrow sailed into the battle, things went from normal and amazing to awe inspiring.

"I remember saying that I wouldn't always be there to catch you," Takeshi said, aiming for the woman of the group, "And here you go getting caught. You are so lucky I live near here."

"W-what? I-impossible! The boy that told me that is dead," the woman said, shakily, remembering a memory from a few years ago. Takeshi wasn't that good at concealing his chakra at that time.

"Oh, that, I've been a master of playing dead since I was ten," Takeshi said, "I did it back then, cause my sensei instructed me too. I also know that you were in on all the unlucky things that happened that day."

"What? Impossible," she said, disbelievingly.

"My sensei taught me many things, one of the things he taught me was how to detect and guage another person's chakra pool," Takeshi said, "Most of my fighting skills were taught to me by him. He's over on that rock over there," he then pointed to where Ryoku was sitting and waving at the group.

"He.." she said.

"He taught Kamikiri-sensei once, I remember seeing him the village a few weeks ago," one of the other ninja said, in slight awe, "He is known as Taijutsu no Tatsujin.."

"I heard some people call him that once, master of martial arts, he taught me all I know in that aspect, also how to fight with weapons, like my sword and staff," Takeshi said.

Ryoku approached the group walking liesurely, then stopped when he was two feet away from Takeshi.

"Have you made your decision?" Ryoku asked his pupil.

"I have," Takeshi said, not paying any more attention to the ninja around them.

"Then I grant you the title Kagemusha, shadow warrior," Ryoku said, "For that is what you are now."

"Arigato gozaimasu Ryoku-sensei," Takeshi said as he bowed before his sensei, "I will go and face the world."

Takeshi walked away from his sensei, and it would be a long time before he would once again see his sensei. The ninja he had saved choosing to follow him and become his disciples, save for the woman, who simply chose to go with him, her art lay elsewhere.

"Gensou Shishou!" Ryoku called out to the young woman once they were far away enough.

"How do you know that title!?" she spun on her heel and asked, surprised as it was the title given to her grandmother, a long time ago, the unbeatable Mistress of Illusions, who had only been bested by a dragon from the sea.

"It is your title now," Ryok told her, then transformed before their very eyes into the dragon that the first Gensou Shishou had seen on that beach that one day, then said as he rose into the sky, "I acknoledge you as such."

The first part of his body that transformed was his head followed by his neck, shoulders, and eveything else on the way down, his feet being the last to transform and rise up to the sky. It was a gradual transformation. Then when he was fully in the sky, he waved at his student and flew off in the direction of their mountain home.

'_Become the strongest that you can be, and as long as you strive to work your hardest to battle the curse, the vicious cycles of war, conflict, and hatred, I will be forever proud of you,_' he mentally projected his words to his student, '_Just as I am proud of you now. Good luck, and may Kami aid you in your endeavors._'


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter eight**_

_*_

_*_

With his pupil off to save the world or do whatever it was that young people do, Ryoku had somewhat forgotten what it was that young people did as his entire life was filled with and that. Work, abuse, adventures, dangers, saving damsels in distress, battling monsters, and other such things that were meant for heroes to do and not children or even teenagers.

He had never actually experienced a real childhood. He had skipped that stage altogether, and ent on to maturity and adulthood. So far he had even been a more or less father to Takeshi, one of the soon to be movers and shakers of the world.

With nothing worth doing in his mountain home, he packed up all his things, including the house, and decided that he would wander the continent, and find some secrets that he had yet to discover. Like find out if there really was a special toad oil, the kind that helped in drawing nature chakra into oneself. He had met and actually created the toad summon clan, and had asked them about this special oil, they had claimed to not know of it. So he did not teach it to them, but knew that he would have to teach it eventually, he also would have to teach his student senjutsu as well.

There were many lands in the continent, each one with its own specialities, and each one with its own dangers, secrets, and the like. Ryoku decided, that since he still had centuries of living left in his hands, he might as well try to enjoy himself. Not by getting into as much trouble as he possibly could, but by enduring challenges that would not only see that he grew, but also find things to do, things that would stimulate him.

He also wanted an excuse to train. He wanted to be a part of the final battle with the Ten Tailed Beast. He wanted in on that fight, as revenge for ambushing him over the sea.

He had already been to the desert on a horse with no name, he had also experienced the life in the mountains of what would one day be known as Kaminari no Kuni, or the Land of Lightning. He and Takeshi had stayed in a number of other habitats, in order for the youth to cultivate and create more jutsus and chakra applications gaining inspiration from their surroundings. So Ryoku decided that he would like to explore a cove that he had come across during one of his nightly explorations of the continent as a black phoenix, flashing in random direction or zooming in one direction until something caught his eye.

One of the things that had caught his eye was a cove, within this cove was a massive whirlpool, one that did not disappear and reappear with the tide, actually the water there was somehow not affected by the tides. There appeared to be a village among the rocks and within the caves of the cove, he would settle there, probably build himself a small hut under the waves, as he was able to breathe under the waves due to his power. He had yet to truly use the power that was granted to him by the First Seed.

He did not use fire travel to get there, nor did he fly there as a dragon, he walked. He knew that it would be a long and perilous journey, but he wanted to actually experience life as a regular human being, but with a number of extraordinary additional powers.

As he walked he pondered on the mystery of that toad oil he had read about, and wanted to find its source, as well as see if he could relocate the toad clan to wherever the oil was being produced. Another thing that he couldn't help but ponder about was how to gather the nature chakra, he could do it, and in a way already did it, but for him it was different. He needed to find a way for other people to do it.

His magic while similar to chakra was different, his was a power from a differen plane entirely, his was a power from the same place as his soul. Therefore his application of his inner and external energy sources was a little bit different from what his student and the ninjas did.

There was also the fact that from he had so far seen and been privy to, entering sennin mode allowed the user to resemble toads in a few ways. He wondered if this was true for all users, or was only that way due to how it was learned to be used. He would have to think on it further and experiment as well.

To be able to gather the natural energies one had to be one with nature, in a way Ryoku was permanently one with nature as he had assimilated into his very being the First Seed. He believed that there was a way to gather the energy needed to cotinue being in the sennin mode without having to resort to clones. Either he would find a way or his student would, as Ryoku believed that Takeshi would need the skill to defeat Juubi.

The peace of the world depended on the defeat of Juubi. The continuation of the world and the continued existence of life depended on the defeat of Juubi. Takeshi could not afford to fail. As his teacher Ryoku was intent on arming his student with all the tools and skills necessary in making that victory more within his grasp.

As he walked he did not stop to eat, drink, or even sleep, he simply took the necessary nutrients directly from nature itself. A subconscious action which he took whenever he was deep in thought. He was so focused on his thoughts that he did not pay any attention to any of the dangers and perils of his journey.

He was at one time attacked by an entire hidden village worth of ninjas, a clan that he had not yet had the privilege in meeting and teaching. He failed to hear their taunts as they claimed that their taijutsu style was greater than any that he knew. They attacked him and were all defeated by him.

He moved with all the swiftness of a coursing river, his movements one continuous flowing motion. Weaving in and out, between, and around his attackers. Their attacks consisted of blows that were meant to send force through the body, collapsing organs, shattering bone, all accomplished by a well aimed strike, all were open palmed hits, or they would have had any actually landed on their target. There were very few kicks, but those were more distraction than anything else. Their arms were their main asset.

After the short lived battle the clan would have preferred it if they had to face the force of a great typhoon, as the force exerted by Ryoku as he moved and slammed into his opponents was greater than even that natural disaster. His visible eye looked a little glazed, but since he was so focused on his inner thoughts, his body moved on its own, and his survival instincts were allowing his power to erupt from within. Bodies flew here and there, slamming into the terrain, and in some cases causing craters to appear once they hit the ground.

In one instance, Ryoku had shattered a boulder that had been thrown his way, all it took was a finger, and the finger did not even touch the boulder when it shattered. His very aura was visible and it turned solid whenever he attacked or blocked an attack.

It was all pure taijutsu and the attackers were being slaughtered, it was a whole clan, a whole hidden village worth of ninja against one man. A man that moved and fought like a snake, mantis, monkey, bear, wolf, and many other animals. He also fought like many other things. The style he used changed every time he switched to a new opponent. The leaders of the assult grew fearful, and continued to grow fearful as Ryoku fought. At first they had thought that their overwhelming numbers would allow them to surpass the man that they were fighting, but it was not meant to be.

Ryoku's survival instincts may have perceived the attackers as not being much of a threat, but without the rest of the mind aware of the attack, it had taken over, and simply went on auto-pilot, neutralizing the minor annoyance before it actually became a threat.

When the leaders called for a retreat, most retreated some carrying their fallen, none of them dead. But there were those few that did not want to follow orders, these few pulled out blades they had brought just in case mere fists would prove not to be sufficient when it came to the man they were facing.

As soon as the blades entered the fight, things began to turn for the worse. At the beginning it was merely bad, but now, now the fight had reached an outcome that none of the leaders wanted to happen. They were about to love one fourth of their clan's population due to the arrogance of some members, and their inability to accept defeat.

The leader ordered all those that were still able to fight to stay, they would stay and watch the massacre that was about to take place, it was the least they could do for their doomed clansmen.

Once the blades were made known to Ryoku, his instincts forcibly pulled him out of thinking mode, and into battle mode. This shift from absent minded fighting to full on concentration on the fight was visible to the onlookers. He analyzed the situation he was with, and decided that his subconscious had done the right thing for the first part of the battle, but now was not the time to show mercy. They were coming at him with the intent to kill, and he would not allow himself to be killed.

His daggers whistled into existence. Both slamming into the craniums of two of the attackers. He quickly pulled them out and began the process of elimination, gutting some, impaling some. He sliced off limbs, and cut of heads. There were a few that had been disemboweled as well. No longer was he merely fighting with his fists and feet. He was now fighting with blades. His twin blades extending and shortening according to his whims.

Having witnessed half of their force being sent inexplicably to their graves, the remaining fighters charged in, attacking as a group like a bunch of berzerkers.

Ryoku hid away one of his blades, freeing one hand to intercept fists and feet, his dagger hand sliced off those limbs, gutted them even. He whirled around, appearing as if he had eyes on the back of his head. When an attack looked like it was going to make its mark, he would intercept the attack just as it was about to hit. He would then send that attacker to his grave. He moved as if he knew what his opponents' next moves were going to be, long before they actually made them.

By the end of the battle, Ryoku remained as pristine as he had entered the battle, not a drop of blood had made its way onto his person, but all around him was a sea of blood. Bodies were strewn everywhere. But being the honorable warrior that he was, he cared not that anyone was watching him. He placed a single palm on the ground, and pumped some of his power into the ground through it. What resulted was that the blood flowed over to where his palm was. He stretched out his other arm and held his other palm face up as if holding a ball. A few seconds later a ball of blood formed, it seemed to contract, and grow more condensed, and as the ball grew more condensced, the bloody battleground lost its redness. When he was done with that he placed the orb in his mindscape, where all his other things could be located. He then poured a little more magic into the ground, this time the action resulted in the ground beneath the fallen falling to create a kind of cemetery. The holes in the ground then covered themselves up when all the bodies were in the holes. When he was done, he bowed to the leaders of the attack party and continued on his journey.

The leaders wondered why they were not attacked and butchered just as the ones that had been were. They also wondered why Ryoku had somehow collected the blodo of the fallen, where did he place the ball of blood, as well as how and why did he bury all those bodies. The only conclusion that they could draw from the experience was that he was very honorable, but at the same time, someone that their clan would never try and challege again, but would strive to attain such a level of fighting, tweaking their style until it became as famous or nearly as famous as Taijutsu no Tatsujin.

*

He encountered a number of other clans, all of which were devoted to using their own fighting style to defeat the seemingly undefeatably undefeated.

Each encounter ended the same, many survivors, and a few dead. Each time he collected their blood, and each time he buried the dead, bowed to the survivors of the encounter, and continued on his way.

As he had all the time in the world, he took his time walking to his destination, taking many detours, as he heard stories of the recent exploits of his student. Takeshi seemed to be doing well, even though it had only been less than a year after their parting.

The most recent of the stories was that he had taken some time to study and train among some monks, where not only did he learn from them, he eventually taught them. Most of the things he did teach them were things he had learned from Ryoku's vast treasure trove of knowledge, and he always credited his teacher when asked where he had gained such enlightenment.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter nine**_

_*_

_*_

After many parts of the continent were, thought to have been, swallowed by the sea. In the east there were a number of islands, that would be where most of the water related countries of the future were to be found, but at present there was nothing of the sort yet. There were a number of scattered settlements, and lords that claimed some lands. While others remained lordless, ownerless, and unprotected.

The cove which Ryoku wanted to reach was found on an island to the south of what would be known as the Land of Lightning, Kaminari no Kuni, or Lightning Country. The only way a regular human would be able to reach it would be for them to travel by boat. But the island was mostly thought to be deserted, which made captain chose not to land there, or even go near it. The refusal to go near it was due to the sheer number of whirlpools that surrounded the island. The biggest of which was located in the cove where Ryoku planned on going.

He chose to ride a ship that would be passing, within viewing distance of the island, while it would not dare go any closer, that was enough for Ryoku as when the ship finally passed beside, it he bid the captain and crew goodbye and dived into the water and began swimming towards the island. The captain, crew, and passengers wishing him luck, as they knew that he just loved a challenge. While those that wished ill of him believed that perhaps the only thing that could possibly beat him were the forces of nature themselves.

When he saw the ship finally disappear on the horizon, Ryoku pulled himself on top of the water and ran the rest of the way to the island, completely bypassing the whirlpools, running over them and not stopping to even take a break.

There a few people on the rocky cliffs of the island that watched his approach. They were amazed by his ability to not only run on water, but also run on the whirlpools that protected their home, their paradise.

What they were unable to see was that Ryoku was not even touching the water, he was running on top of a layer of magic that separated him from the water. The water walking excercises that would be taught to ninja in the future would be based on such a way of crossing water, but no one would really know or understand how Ryoku did it, as it would be something which would be taught or was already being taught by Takeshi.

As he reached the shore he was greeted by the sight of people, not frightened people or people that wanted to see if they could beat him in a fist fight, but people that were curious about him.

"How did you cross the whirlpools?" one elderly man asked as he approached Ryoku's rapidly drying form.

"Secret," Ryoku said, "But if you really would like to know, I'd need for you to do something for me."

"What would that be?" the elder asked him.

"Show me the cove with the biggest whirlpool," Ryoku said, "I wish to sit at the center of it."

"You may be able to run across water, a feat that some of our contacts on the mainland have informed us about being possible nowadays, but there is no chance that you can sit in the middle of that monster," the elder said.

"Now, take me to this monster, and I shall sit on it," Ryoku said, "If you do, I shall share some secrets with your little village there."

"H-how do you know abotu the village?" the elder asked, a little frightened, as it was their own hidden village. They had a visible village on one side of the island, visible to passing ships, and their hidden one in the cove.

"I saw it one night ,while I was out exploring the continent," Ryoku said, "No worries, I told not a soul of its existence."

"H-how could you have..?" the elder asked.

"As I said," Ryoku said, "I shall share with you some secrets, if you lead me to your monster, but if you do not wish to know my secrets, I will find my own way."

He took a few steps in the right direction, the people not moving to stop him as the elderly man who was their leader did nothing but watch Ryoku walked away on the sands of the shore, and eventually jump up the cliff, and continue walking as if he had done nothing out of the ordinary.

"Elder," one of the other people said, "What of the village, should he find it on his own..."

"We made a vow not to allow any outsiders that fine the village, leave the village," the elder said, "He will get what is coming to him, the whirlpool that has protected us all these years from the ravages of war will prevent him from doing us harm."

"But what of the secret of walking on water? We could have used it, learned it, and incorporated it in our fighting style, to better protect ourselves from outside theats," was said to the elder.

"Like the energy we discovered, and its applications," the elder said, "We will figure it out on our own, if he would not share it with us willingly, then he can take his secrets to his watery grave."

*

Ryoku did not know what else he would find in the cove, other than the village and the whirlpool. He just continued walking on, unmindful of the possible dangers that could be awaiting him there.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks as a child appeared from almost out of nowhere. He had been wondering when the child would show herself to him.

"Why do you want to see the whirlpool so badly?" she asked him, she looked to be around five years old, with eyes as green as his, and hair as red as any Weasley.

"Because I wish to sit on it, and see if I can find any of its secrets," Ryoku answered, "Why?"

"But the elder said that if an outside," she said and pointed at him, "That's you..."

"Yes? If an outsider like me goes there, what will happen?" he asked perceptively.

"If an outsider like you goes there, you'll die," she said.

"I promise you, I will not die," Ryoku said.

"But the whirlpools protect us, and the big one has a monster that protects us," she said, "It will kill you."

"Whatever this monster is, I doubt it could kill me," Ryoku said, "I am warrior, one that is unmatched in my chosen field."

"But it will still kill you," she insisted, "You should go back to where you came from."

"I don't think so," Ryoku said, and restarted his walk in the direction of the whirlpool.

"If you say so," the girl said and walked with him.

After a few minutes of walking, Ryoku and the girl arrived at the edge of a cliff, beyond it Ryoku could see the massive whirlpool, it was bigger than his Horntail form, which he decided to avoid using in this world, and that he would be using his lung dragon form.

From a distance the whirlpool looked like a pattern on the water, unmoving, while in truth, the thing moved so fast that it appeared like it did not move, like it was stationary, the waters frozen in such a shape, like an ice sculpture of a whirlpool or a porcelain figurine. Ryoku knew better, he made made one once, just to teack Takeshi how to fight in and on water, a nearly impossible task, and his opponents at that time were the marine summon clans.

"So..have you decided to try and escape your fate?" the child asked him, "But even if you did, the monster has seen you, and will come to kill you now."

After saying that, the child ran back the way they had come from.

'_Well, one of them did kind of lead me here,_' Ryoku thought to himself, '_Might as well teach her something after meditating on the most violent of waters._'

Ryoku jumped down to the sandy shore between the whirlpool and the hidden village. He simply looked at it, searching for this so called monster hidden deep within it.

After scanning the surface of the water, he noticed eight long shapes moving beneath the surface, and one solitary mass below the center of the whirling mass of water. There really was a monster, one that seemed to be observing him as much as he was observing it.

The people of the island, and of the village hid away within the shelters provided by their homes in the cove. Ryoku didn't mind, it was time to approach the vortex.

He stepped on the water and felt it churn even faster. After getting used to the speed of the water, and the possibility of it accelerating further, he began his walk to its center. After passing a few rings of the thing, the first massive tentacles broke the surface of the water, and sped to intercept him, grab him and pull him under.

He flared his aura, letting out small bits of his magic and shaping them into a condensed and barely visible mass that resembled his chosen dragon form for this world. As soon as the next tentacle rose out of the depths, he formed a second one, then a third, and so on and so forth. When he finally reached the center of the whirling mass of water, there were eight magical dragons keeping the tentacles at bay.

Ryoku then took a seat in the center of the mass, and meditate.

He closed his eyes and entered his mindscape, solidified his defenses, and entered his soul room when he believed his mind was secure. Once there, he dispersed his physical form and joined his being with the rest of creation. Becoming one with nature, with the world, and everything in it. His magic forming the link.

The inhabitants of the island had never seen anything like it happen before. They found it impossible how one man had been able to bypass the security of their island. Their ultimate defense had nearly been rendered obsolete. But there was one more trick up the monster's sleeve, the villagers had only seen it happen once, when a pod of whales swam too close.

Its main body was made up of one massive mouth, filled with rows upon rows of impossibly sharp teeth. That was its finaly trick, its ace up its sleeves, and it looked about ready to use it against this tresspasser.

As he meditated, his magic acted as an automatic defense. It was his ultimate defense when he was in such a relaxed state. As soon as the monster's maw appeared around the whirlpool ready to devour Ryoku, whirlpool and all. His aura lashed out, forming the shape of a single transparent black dragon, with flaming spines along the ridge on its back. Its might was felt by all around. What followed that was the form of a black phoenix shining above the dragon. Both magical constructs and auras protecting the meditating master in the middle of the vortex of supposed doom.

From within his soul room, as he connected with all of nature, he saw what was happening from the eyes of a hermit crab, and knew that the monster was a vile abomination, a construct of negativity disguised as a protection, created and maintained by the Ten Tailed Beast. There was only one thing he could do about it.

He summoned the Tako summon clan, the octopus clan, and the Ika summon clan, the squid clan. Both arrived with none of those bursts of smoke that the summons of the future would be known for, they arrived beneath the waves, their own tentacles joining the fray, grabbing the monster on all sides, halting its movement completely.

The inhabitants of the hidden village grew fearful. There were more monsters than they had ever seen or encountered or heard of before. Enough to over power the monster of the whirlpools. But it was the man in the middle that scared them the most, as when his eyes opened the monster turned to ash, and the whirlpools around the island calmed. They knew his eyes had suddenly opened as the eyes of the etheral dragon and phoenix did as he did. They were two aspects of his being, creatues of his soul and aura, the dragon for power and wisdom, and the phoenix for life, death, and rebirth.

The people reluctantly left the safety of their homes, and ventured forth, reluctantly as they gained a new fear of this new arrival that had vanquished their long time protector.

Ryoku rose from his sitting position, having figured out how to teach his student the way of becoming a sennin. Ryoku had seen his student through the eyes of a butterfly, seen him study the art of the six paths. He studies philosophy and spirituality among the monks of the world, and in return taught what he had learned from him.

Ryoku then walked back to shore, on the still waters, as the tentacles of the two summon clans returned beneath the surface of the water. He was met at the shore by the elderly leader of the people.

"What trickery is this? How did you vanquish our protector?" the elder demanded of him, "You have sat at the heart of the monster, now share your secrets. Or would you renege your word."

"You showed me nothing, therefore I shall teach you nothing," Ryoku told the elder, "You would order one such as I around as if I were below you? Pitiful fool, I should have my students gobble you up, like the worms that you are."

"You dare defy me in my domain," the elder said angrily, waving around a staff which he held in one hand.

"While you may have not helped me, done me the favor of leading me to the monster of your shores," Ryoku said, then announced, "A red-haired, green eyes child did in your stead, it shall be her, and her alone that I shall share my secrets with."

"R-really?" the girl asked as she pushed her way forward from the back of the gathered crowd.

"Yes," Ryoku said, "I will share with you the ways of the waters, of the seas, and you shall be the first sage to walk the lands, young as you may be. There is no wiser wisdom than that of a child's."

"You dare defy me!" the old man shouted in indignation, "Why waste your secrets on a child!?"

"She helped me, when you did not, she did not fear the monster as you have feared it," Ryoku said, then faced the child, "What is your name?"

"I am Shiokaze," she said proudly.

"Then starting today, I, Ryoku, shall be your sensei," Ryoku announced, he was more or less ignoring the old man and some of the disgruntled adults that had been ignored in favor of a child, "Your first lesson will begin tomorrow. You will no matter what, meet me at the center of the whirlpool, where I shall teach you to meditate."

"Hai, sensei," she said.

"What whirlpool?" one of the adults asked him, seeing no whirlpools in sight, as they had all disappeared from the water's surface when the monster was destroyed.

"Tako! Ika! Protect your home from those that would use you for selfish reasons!" Ryoku shouted, and his students obeyed. They knew seals, and genjutsu, and some other things that he had taught, them. They instantly began working on creating their paradise in two caverns below the waves, in doing so, forming whirlpools around the small island.

"What were you saying about the whirlpools?" Ryoku asked, seeing that the whirlpools had returned, as did the monstrous one in the cove.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter ten**_

_*_

_*_

Early morning the very next day Shiokaze tried to get to her sensei as fast as she possibly could. Her task seemed impossible to the people that had woken up early to watch her attempt to reach her sensei as he lazily lay on the surface of the water.

The whirlpool did not whirl as fast as what had previously been its regular speed. It was quite slow compared to the original, but that did not mean that Shiokaze had an easy time wading through the waters, and eventually swimming in the direction of her sensei. Every now and then the current or undercurrent would sweep her under and deliver her to the shore, which forced her to restart from the very beginning. Ryoku simply lazily lay on his side watching her progress through the vortex to get to him.

What she did not realize, not that anyone else did, was that Ryoku had been making the vortex move faster after every attempt. Every time that his student was forced to restart he added some more speed to the current, some more force. What his student failed to realize that each failure was an accomplishment, even though she could not get that far from the shore, she was managing to reach the same point every time, she must have been attributing the rising difficulty to her getting tired, which was actually part of it.

She had apparently not eaten any breakfast, as when the sun had sufficiently journeyed above the world, she looked more tired than Takeshi looked the first time. So he calmed the waters when she looked about ready to collapse. He then made the water carry her to him.

"W-why...did...you...do...that?" she said between breaths.

"I realized that you began the excercise without eating," Ryoku said, "I can't have my student dying on me, now."

He reached into the water and produced a plate full of food, rice and seafood, he handed the plate to her, while the water kept her well above the rest of the waters, and instructed her to finish the food, and rest when she was done until he told her to return to her excercise.

"Tomorrow you will remember to eat before coming for training," Ryoku said, "Training on an empty stomach is bad for you, but you must also remember to rest for a while after eating. Understand?"

"Hai, sensei," she said.

"Good," he said.

After she finished her breakfast, she asked Ryoku why he didn't look like he ate anything. She said that no one had actually seen him eat, or sleep for that matter.

"I need no sleep, no food, nor drink," Ryoku said, "For I get all the energy, rest, and nutrients, I need directly from the world."

"How?" she asked him, curiously.

"I will teach you that later on," he said, "After you have trained some more. My other student might one day find use of you."

"Your other student? What other student?" she asked him, as he had arrived alone.

"My other student's name is Takeshi, he is older than you by many years," he told her as she was resting before continuing her initial training, "He is a master of many arts, some of which I myself will teach you."

"Ok," she said, "But when will you teach me to walk on water?"

"After you have been able to get passed the whirlpool without my tricks, I will teach you how to walk on water," he told her.

#

While Ryoku spent his time training she who would be the first actual sennin, Takeshi had taken to righting wrongs in the world. Preaching about peace, while at the time fighting to enforce his beliefs, he did not impose it on people, but somehow found ways to make them realize the benefits of peace for themselves. He was hailed as a master of many arts, and many monks hailed him as a holy man himself, something which he denied as he claimed he only taught what he himself had been taught.

Many people began to see him as a god, and his followers grew. Within five years of his travels around the lands, he had gained quite a large following. Many ninja clans banded together to go on pilgrimages to meet and hopefully learn from this prodigy in things that they had never realized or figured out how to perform.

Chakra and its use as an enhancer of the available skills that one's body can grant were the only things that most knew about, but when word reached the many clans that there was a man that could breathe flames, spit out mud, make dragons out of water, and split a boulder with wind, they flocked to him. To learn his ways.

Some hailed him as a holy man when he preached about enhancing one's connection with the spirits, respecting the dead, honoring the living, and connecting with the world and the gods. Spirit and stamina were what made up chakra, and like how the body was excercised to build stamina and endurance, so was the mind and spiritual energy enhanced by meditation, relaxation, and in some cases prayer. Inner peace was one of the things that he preached, clearing or masking of one's emotions helped in any situation, especially in a fight.

Takeshi was also a master story teller, enchanting the youth that came with some adults with stories of his youth, and of stories about the summon clans, and how they made homes for themselves scattered and hidden away across the continent away from prying eyes, whose homes were even more hidden than any human hidden village. Protected by seals and illusions. He told the children that the summon clans would only allow those that found their homes and passed their tests to sign contracts to summon them. But that the contracts themselves were either hidden away, or were kept by a the Taijutsu no Tatsujin, Takeshi's own teacher.

It was quite believeable that such a man held the contracts of many of the continent's summon clans, as the man's fame grew day by day as the man that could not be moved, be beated, be felled, and in some cases be found. He was a mystery, a lone traveller, that after a while disappeared from the face of the world. Takeshi knew that his sensei was alright, as his summons reported to him that Ryuko was training a new student, a girl this time, in the seal and sage arts, not that Takeshi knew much about the sage arts, only that his sensei had one day promised to teach him.

During his travel with his first followers, he had eventually come to love, and married the Gensou Shishou, Sakuran. He had a son by her, which he named Sasuke.

While he traveled he did not ignore his son and showered him with love, attention, and trained him in his arts as well. When the boy was a few years older, entering his teen years the child eventually began helping his father during conflicts, and the like. From his mother he learned illusions, one of two things that he had become quite adept at.

A few years later, Sakuran became with child once again, and at that time the world as they knew it was in war. Takeshi had only managed to bring the cycles to a stop for a few years, but this war was something else, something was different, some thing was calling out to him, something which seemed to want to devour him, destroy him and everything he held dear.

He didn't know what it was, but he had some theories and speculations, so one day, he bid his wife and sons goodbye. He would go on a pilgrimage that only he could go on, the search for his sensei. There was still one thing which he needed to learn, and he needed his sensei to teach him as he believed that it was important for the battles that lay ahead.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter eleven**_

_*_

_*_

It had been a few years since he began teaching Shiokaze, and in those years she bloomed under him tutelage. She grew in knowledge, in strength, and in speed, she also grew in power. By the time he was through with her she was a true sennin, one that could gather and use or call upon the energies of nature itself to aid her in her endeavors.

But the nature chakra that she was able to gather was of a specific kind, she had made signed the contracts of the Tako and Ika clans, both of which relied heavily on water, therefore she could only call upon the ckara of the wind and waves to aid her.

It seemed to Ryoku that the only neutrals in the world were to be himself and Takeshi, as Shiokaze gained some physical attributes that made her stick out when she was immersed in nature chakra, when she was in sage mode. Her skin gained the feel of an octopus' or a squid's skin, her eyes lost their green color and turned all black, and her hair became like seaweed. There was one instance where she had become like water. Those were the traits she gained when she entered sage mode.

One day she overheard the elders talking about some news from the mainland, about the wars that were getting worse, and that there was a hero that seemed to be having problems keeping the peace. The world was on the brink of destruction and more heroes were needed.

The Gensou Shishou and Kagemusha seemed to be in need of another helping hand against the violence and hatred that was sweeping the lands.

"Sensei," she said as she approached him at the center of a raging vortex of watery doom, as he lazily sat there and looked up at her.

"Yes, my dear student?"

"There is war brewing on the mainland, it could spill over the islands I have sworn to protect," she told him, "Is there something that I can do?"

"To protect your islands, or to stop the spread of war?" he asked her, "Or is there another reason?"

"I heard that Kagemusha and Gensou Shishou were having trouble with the wars, that they were no longer able to quell the growing hatred between the clans and the nations," she told him.

"This is what you have heard," he said to her, "But what of you? Your opinion on this, what is your view?"

"My view?" she asked him.

"What are _your_ reasons for wanting to do something?" he asked her, stressing the 'your'.

"I...I have none..." she admitted.

"Then meditate on it, in the middle of this uzumaki," he told her, "This is your final test. You must calm the seas around the continent as you search for the answer to my question."

"Hai, sensei," she said and sat in her sensei's spot in the middle of the whirling vortex.

She closed her eyes and connected with the waters of her world. She was one with nature. She was the blood that flowed into and in the rivers. She was the tears that crossed the cheeks of those that were crying. She was the rain that fell on the battlefield. She saw and felt the sorrow of the people, the cries of the innocent for justice, and those for peace. She watched as the orphaned youths cried for their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, and sisters.

She saw the suffering in the world.

She then decided to search for the one that that she had heard about, the one man that strived to end the wars, end all wars, and bring everlasting peace to the lands.

When she found him, she found a man travelling, searching for someone or something. He looked hurried in his steps, asking questions of people. She saw the memories of the morning dew, the puddles of mud, the lakes, and rivers, and ponds. In each memory of the man, was a question. What was he searching for aside from the answer to how to end the wars, the suffering, the hatred, the pain.

Then she heard a question, in real time, as it was happening. He was looking at his reflection in a waterfall on some mountain top, overlooking a vast forest.

"_Where are you sensei...I need you, now more than ever..."_ she heard him ask the world, and as she was temporarily part of the world she heard him.

After she heard the question, she was pushed out, her connection to nature severed suddenly. Looking around she noticed that it was nighttime, and the only one that was around was her sensei, sitting on a cloud of all things, she didn't think it was even possible, even while he did it.

"And what is your answer?" he asked, "What is your reason for wanting to leave this paradise?"

"I want to help end the suffering, not just in my islands, but also in the rest of the lands," she told him, "There is a man, Kagemusha, he is searching for someone...his teacher..I wish to help him in his quest to end the cycles of war, conflict, and hatred. I want to help him rid the lands of this curse."

"Acceptable," he told her, "Then you must leave at once, time is short. You must find Kagemusha, and teach him what you know."

"Teach him? But he is already a master," she said, "What could I possibly teach him?"

"He said that he was looking for his teacher, did he not," he said to her.

"He did, but what does that have to do with me? I am not his sensei," she said confused.

"You are to teach him, as he is to teach you," he told her, "This is the task that you must accomplish."

"But what about his teacher? Do I help him find his teacher?" she asked.

"You are the teacher he needs right now," he told her sagely, "His first sensei would only be a burden, and you are more suited to teaching him what he needs to know."

"What am I to teach him, sensei?"

"Senjutsu," he told her.

"I can teach him that?" she asked him.

"It is the art he has not yet mastered," he said, "It is the reason why he seeks his teacher."

"How do you know this sensei?" she asked him curious.

"I am Taijutsu no Tatsujin," Ryoku told her, "I know what the Kagemusha knows, and what he does not know."

"Sensei?" she said not understanding him.

"You are now the Uzumaki Sennin," he proclaimed, "Teach Kagemusha the arts of the sage, and name him Rikudou Sennin, when he has mastered the sage arts as the Sage of the Six Paths."

"Sensei...? What do I know of being a Sage of the Six Paths?" she said to him.

"Like how you are a Sage of the Whirlpools, he is a master of the Six Paths, but he needs to be a sage to unlock the true powers of those paths, like how you have mastered the wind and waters, and most escpecially the whirlpools," he told her, "Now prepare, and leave at once."

"Why are you so insistent that I leave immediately?" she asked him.

"I know what is best and what is needed," Ryoku told his still young student, "Kagemusha is in desperate need of a teacher. That is all I will tell you, I will see you at the final battle."

After telling her that the cloud he rode on dissolved to reveal a dragon's tail coiled up beneath him. He then stood up, and slowly rose up higher and higher into the sky, transforming as he rose into a dragon.

"Remember, I will see you at the final battle," he told her as he flew off into the distance, to search for one more person that he would teach before preparing himself for the final battle between the humans and the Juubi.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter twelve**_

_*_

_*_

He had managed to once again slip through the time streams, and land himself in the past of the world he was in. In this time his past self was still training Takeshi, training that would last for only three more years. Ryoku had decided that his last student for this era would need a lot more time than Shiokaze to learn what he had to teach. This last student was, like the other two, special.

He didn't really know much about this last student of his, and if there really was meant to be such a student, as the comics he had read did not have much information on the Land of Iron. The home of the remaining clans of true samurai. They must have come from someone, and Ryoku was intent on being the man to actually teach that revered figure in that land's history. He'd already trained the Father of Ninjutsu, the First Sennin, and he himself was the Taijutsu no Tatsujin. He was also an indirect reason for the Gensou Shishou to become a real person and not some myth.

He decided that while still in his dragon form he would scour the lands for the individual that would be worthy of becoming the master of the sword, become the one that would be worshipped as having been a god to all swordsmen and samurai.

He needed another young mind to mold, one whose heart was still pure even after seeing or experiencing the horrors of the world. He needed to find a soul that was just, was brave or couragoues, was benevolent or merciful, knew the value and virtue of respect, was honest and sincere, was honorable, and was loyal. Having a desired character and self-control were things that came with training.

Ryoku settled on a cloud and entered his meditative state, to view the world from all angles. He allowed his magic to envelope him in a protective barrier, one which resembled an egg, a golden egg with a few flecks of silver, depending on the position of the sun, moon, or stars.

Bands of bandits, soldiers, and samurai, were plentiful across the lands many of them performing acts of ill repute, and many more engaged in minor wars with one another's clans. But it was the samurai clans that Ryoku was focusing his attentions on. They needed to be unified, and find peace with one another. If his theories and hypothesis were correct, it was due to this fighting between samurai clans which led to their being very of their kind in the future. Something which Ryoku planned on seeing not happen as much as possible or reaching that extent.

The samurai were the knights of the east, just as much as the knights were the samurai of the west. Each following a strict code, bushido for samurai, and chivalry for knights.

There were many fighting clans, one battle in particular caught his attention. The clan was more or less wiped out save for a young boy and three young women, teens most like. The boy was defending them from the warriors of a rival clan. Although he was far outclassed, and outmatched, as well as seeing as he had no formal training, he was holding his own defending the girls from the attackers. He was the last of the men of his clan, but the sad truth of the matter was that he was losing, no matter how much he struggled to defeat such numbers, he would be unable to do much more than stall for the inevitable.

Ryoku had found the one that he would train up to be the Seigi Musei or Silent Justice.

The protective shell his magic provided shattered as he shot in the direction of the boy and the three girls. The sheer speed which he travelled at had caused the clouds he passed through to literally be cut in half. He remembered such a day occurring and at least now knew the reason behind such a phenomenon. He raced to the boy's aid, in mid flight parts of his body turned human, while other parts remained draconic.

The boy's sword had been forced out of his tired hands, and even though his attacker was about to deliver the final blow, he looked on defiant, trying to still protect the three girls in the room behind him.

As the sword was about to pierce his flesh, Ryoku appeared before the child, his twin blades in each hand, each one as long as a regular katana. His arrival had blown back the attackers, all of whom looked at him with more than simple hints of fear.

His appearance was not that of his usual scarred and eye patched look. He wasn't even wearing his regular avatar garb or anything that resembled a ninja.

He wore a a purple kimon, and purple hakama pants beneath jade battle armor, all of which didn't look all that special, save for the fact that the armor seemed to have a dragon scale kind of pattern engraved on it. He had a sword sheath attached to both sides of his waist. His helmet and mask made him look like a dragon, but the mask park only covered his nose and mouth, leaving his eyes visible, both eyes. Both of his eyes were slitted, one glowing emerald, the other golden.

But it wasn't just what he looked like which inspired fear in these seemingly fearless men, it was his aura, it was simply overwhelming, overpowering. It washed over them and sent some of them to their knees, even the ones outside of the compound of the boy's clan.

"Leave," was all Ryoku said before he watched the attackers beat a hasty retreat, his voice had taken on a slightly silky serpentine quality.

When he was sure that there were no more attackers or invaders in the small village like compound, he turned to face the boy, after sheathing his blades, keeping them at their katana length.

The boy had remained conscious despite his injuries from his long battle.

"W-who are you?" he asked trying to act brave even though he was more than frightened on the inside, for what sane person would not fear someone that could scare all the members of a rival clan.

"I am Ryoku," he introduced himself, "You fought well, young warrior, what is your name?"

"M-my name? Ryoku-sama?"

"Yes, your name," he said.

"Kimura, Ryoku-sama," the boy replied.

"I watched how you have been defending those three women," Ryoku told the boy.

"Y-you watched?! While the rest of my clan was massacred? Why!?" the boy snapped, the grief of losing almost his entire clan finally catching up to him.

"You should be grateful that I did not intervene earlier," Ryoku said, "Had I intervened, then your clan would have lost all honor, having to rely on one such as myself. They were all samurai, whereas you are not, which allowed me to come and save you from death. It would not do to have your clan disappear, such a promising youth you are, with much potential."

"I..I apologize Ryoku-sama," the boy said and bowed despite his slight injuries, while not life threatening hurt quite a lot.

"It is alright," Ryoku said, "After watching you, I have decided to take you on as my apprentice."

"A-apprentice? As a what, sir?" the boy asked.

"I will train you to become a warrior, a samurai, one that will bring about change in the world," Ryoku said, "But what such change will be and how it will truly come to pass will be up to you."

"But what if I refuse?" the boy asked, a little defiantly, as Ryoku was still a stranger to him.

"Then I shall take those three women you strived to protect, and protect them myself, as you are no longer capable of protecting them, nor would you be worthy of protecting them," Ryoku said.

"I will not let you or anyone else take them," the boy announced defiantly.

"How do you propose to do that in the state you are presently in?"

"I don't know, but I'll find a way," the boy insisted.

"Determination and stubborness, witha little bit of loyalty in the mix," Ryoku observed, "Will you be my apprentice?"

"I.." the boy said, thinking it over, "What choice have I?"

"Two, one to be taught, and one to be granted a quick death," Ryoku replied, "I wish not to see anymore suffering this day."

"Then I accept," Kimura said.

"Then from this day forward, you will call me Ryoku-sensei, or just sensei," Ryoku said, "Now fetch those three girls and introduce them to me."

"H-hai Ryoku-sensei," the boy said as he struggled to his feet, and struggled to get to the girls he had been protecting.

He returned a few minutes later, leading the three girls who kept trying to help him due to his injuries but he was too stubborn to show any more weakness in front of his new teacher, and master.

"This is our new master, Ryoku-sama," the boy told the three girls, "I have accepted his offer to become his apprentice."

"I..I am Tomoe, Ryoku-sama," the eldest of the trio said. She looked twenty.

"I am Kaoru, Ryoku-sama," the youngest of the trio said. She looked fifteen.

"I am Yumi, Ryoku-sama," the middle sister said. She looked eighteen.

"We, vow to serve you as the remaining women of the Ryuuko clan," they said bowing to him.

"I see," Ryoku said, somewhat expecting the turn of events to occur, "The first order of business will be to make sure that the compound is secure."

Ryoku then instructed the women on what to, while taking out several stacks of paper seals, and told them to place them around the compound as protection.

"While the seals will protect you four while you are still untrained, as time progresses the seals will weaken and eventually, when they are all gone, I expect that you will be able to more than adequately defend youself, and your clan," Ryoku told Kimura, as he healed the boy using his magic.

"Hai," the boy said, "I will master all that you will teach me, sensei."

"Good, then we will start with your mind and your body," Ryoku said, "We need to make them formidable, before I can teach you how to properly fight."

*

After the seals had been placed around the compound, Ryoku had the girls prepare some food, while he buried the bodies of the slain. The warriors with their families, and their swords. He had Kimura help him with the bodies of the dead. As a lesson to the boy to give importance to life, and to forever respect the dead.

It would be years before the compound would be once again inhabited by a great number of clansmen, therefore there was no real need to actually fix up the whole place, save for one of the smaller houses and the main house, the walls and the gate.

Ryoku had Kimura help him with all the fixing, by carrying tools and whatnot around. The boy was tasked to do things within a certain time limit, whever he would fail he would be given a more difficult task. Failure did not necessarily mean suffering, but that it could lead to further hardship, which is different from suffering.

While the boy trained unknowingly under Ryoku, the girls did their share by cleaning up the place, as well as preparing their meals. The clan had at one time been self sufficient, but due to the latest attack which left the compound in near ruins, and the clan nearly extinct, they would need to rely on trade to get their supplies. Which the girls viewed as a problem as they had no money to trade with, and nothing but their bodies to barter with.

"I can just continue working as I was before the clan fell from grace," Yumi told her sister while they were talking about how to get some money for food and supplies.

"But you can't, what if something happens to you?" Kaoru asked her sister, and in deed they were sisters, distant cousins to Kimura the young head of a clan of four.

"You worry too much, I am too good at what I do to get hurt so easily," Yumi said, "Besides there are a few other samurai that frequently call on me to service them, these men owe me a few favors."

"But still..." Kaoru said..

"But nothing Kaoru, Yumi is old enough to make decisions on her own, just as she knows how to protect herself, just as you do," Tomoe said, "All women of the Ryuuko clan have been taught how to defend ourselves when the men are not around."

"B-but that didn't help when the Izumi clan attacked us," Kaoru said, "We were practically slaughtered."

"Then we'll ask Ryoku-sama to teach us how to protect ourselves," Tomoe said, "He is afterall training our young head as his apprentice, we wont really burden him."

"Yes..I suppose..but what if he asks for payment or something?" Kaoru asked, unsure if such a decision was a wise choice.

"I can think of a few things that I can do to pay him should he ask for something in return," Yumi said, "After all, he is still a man."

"No," Tomoe said, "We will ask Kimura-sama to ask his sensei to help us."

Unknown to the three girls, Kimura had been passing by and overheard their conversation, and after hearing of their having problems, hurried back to his sensei intent on speaking to the man about them.

Ryoku at that time was busy reinforcing the walls and gate using magic, and the earth aspect of nature. Hardening the stone to stand not only the test of time, but possibly even a chakra enforced or enhanced physical attack. Same for the wood that made up the gate.

"Sensei," Kimura said as he approached his sensei that had just finished repairing and reinforcing the wall.

"Yes? What is it?"

"I overheard the girls talking.." Kimura said, "I know that eavesdropping was bad..but they were talking about some problems."

"What sorts of problems?" Ryoku asked patiently as he leaned against the wall.

"We don't have money for food and supplies, things which we will be needing to obtain soon," the boy said, "And also, they were planning on asking you to teach them how to defend themselves too."

"Anything else?" Ryoku asked, "Do you have any requests of me?"

"I..Can you teach them..please?" Kimura asked his teacher.

"If they ask it of me, I shall," Ryoku said, "But about the money, you may use mine, I have enough for all of us."

"You have more than enough for all of us?" Kimura asked, as Ryoku did not really look to have anything more on him other than his clothes, armor, and swords..but he did have those seals, stacks of them, bundles of them.

"I do," Ryoku said, pushing himself away from the wall, and walked to his student, then told his student to hold out a hand. When Kimura did, he dropped a small bag of gold coins, and walked towards one of the still ruined houses, "Give that to Tomoe, and tell her to use it for your needs."

"Our needs? But what about you?" Kimura asked, whirling around to face his sensei's retreating back.

"I have no real needs at the moment," Ryoku said before entering the house, "My only concern for the time being is you."

When his teacher was no longer visible, having vanished into the house, Kimura knowing that he had more or less been told to do what he wanted, he went back to the room where he knew the trio of girls were.

"Tomoe-chan," Kimura said from outside of the room, beyond the paper door.

"Hai, Kimura-sama?" the older girl said as she pushed aside the sliding door, "What is it?"

"Sensei said to give this to you," he said then placed the small bag of gold in her hands, "He knows we need money so he gave that to me to give to you, for our needs."

"H-how did he know?" she asked him.

"I heard you three talking about it," Kimura said, "So asked him what could be done."

"Thank you," she said to him.

"What work does Yumi-chan do?" Kimura couldn't help but ask.

"She..it doesn't matter Kimura-sama, concentrate on your studies, let me handle my sisters," Tomoe said, "You have done enough already, but you are still too young to worry about us all of the time."

"If you say so."


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter thirteen**_

_*_

_*_

Ryoku was never seen by his students without his armor, but during the times that he did walk amongst them without it on, he looked like almost any ordinary person. While in armor, his skin, what of it was visible, was scaly like a dragon, most especially around his eyes, and his hands had claws instead of just fingernails, or fingers for that matter.

Whenever Ryoku left the compound he would do so as a normal looking human being, without any armor, and without his twin blades on his person. Wearing normal clothes, not his avatar garb, no one recognized him as the Taijutsu no Tatsujin, not even Takeshi whom he had bumped into at one occassion, just to test the perceptiveness of his student. He still wore an eye patch over his left eye to hide its uniqueness from the world. His scar was not that unique, it did not stand out so much, as compared to the scars some others sported. In this normal form he wore his hair in a ponytail, shortening it a little bit.

Using such a mundane form allowed him to keep watch over the two girls that tended to leave the compound and do what they called their share, as not to be a burden on the household. They did a bit of work when they were not in the compound performing their chores.

Yumi worked at the pleasure district as a geisha, a very successful one, and Kaoru had a habit of playing in gambling dens, always managing to come out on top. It was escaping the men that thought she had somehow cheated which was the hardest part of all these things.

Kaoru would usually run to where her sister worked and hide their as the guards of the place, and some of the clients took defending the girls and women working their as very important and a way to show off their strength. But whenever she was unable to reach there or when her pursuers managed to catch up with her, no matter how fast she was. Ryuko would always show up to defend her.

Whenever he did show up, he made sure to look like a cross between a ninja and a samurai. He would pull up a face mask to cover his mouth and nose from view, leaving only his and single visible eye and part of his scar as the only things that would identify him. His clothes would also turn black to match his hair, and gloves would appear and cover his hands, each one had a metal plate on their backs.

No one dared to fight him after the first time he had appeared, for at that time he had not only incapacitated the men, but also did so without breaking a sweat. He had ended the fight by using the men's weapons on them, and without receiving a single visible injury.

What no one had seen was that afterwards, he had ducked into an alley, and slumped to the ground in exhaustion. He concealed most of his power, which was harder to do to the extent that he did, and usually took a lot out of him. While he could do such a thing on a whim, it was doing it in such a way that was hard. He allowed himself small bursts of power during the fight, which made him fast enough to move out of the way and not be harmed. It was small bursts, every now and then while keeping his true power and aura a secret, hidden behind layers upon layers of concentration and control. A tiring task not on the body, but on the mind.

During the day he would keep an eye out for Kaoru, but it was during the nights that he made sure that nothing happened to Yumi, as there were people that wished to steal her away, against her will. Some that wished to kill her for reasons that were their or their clients' own. She was after all the most successful and highest paid of all the women in the district of the city that the compound was nearest to. The compound itself being in isolation from civilization.

Ryoku was able to perform these self-appointed duties by breaking the laws space and time, as was his right as the Avatar of Aetas.

He had already stopped a number of attempts on Yumi's life. Each time was usually done by a ninja. The first attempt was made by a skilled ninja, the succeding ones were not as skilled, and had taken on the job, one after another for the prestige of accomplishing whatever mission had to do with Yumi, as after each attempt, these would be attackers, kidnappers, rapist, or assassins were always found tied up the front yard of the house of pleasure where Yumi worked.

In short, Ryoku was in four places at once. Training Takeshi, Training Kimura in the compound. Looking out for Kaoru. And, keeping Yumi safe.

*

Tomoe seemed to be the only one of the household that was constantly looking something, performing some task, even after the other retired to their rooms. She had a tendency to work well into the night, practicing what Ryoku had been teaching them after they had asked him to teach them how to better protect themselves. She believed that as the eldest of the three sisters she had to perform at a certain level, which is why she made sure that everything on everyday's agendas were accomplished before she went to sleep.

She was not aware that the two men in her life, namely Kimura and Ryoku, knew of her daily routine. Kimura never said anything about it as Ryoku had told him not to mind it, and to as much as possible forget about ever finding out.

Ryoku on the other hand, made sure that she did not over work herself, by forcing her to sleep when he thought that she had worked or practiced enough. She probably had nothing to do around the compound really, aside from cooking, preparing the baths, cleaning clothes and the compound which wasn't all that hard. She looked to be a little lonely whenever her sisters were out making money and connections, and whenever Kimura was with Ryoku training, which had progressed from merely strengthening excecises to actual combat training.

Ryoku knew that the lack of people in the once busy and filled compound was something that Tomoe, who apparently rarely if ever left the compound or was perpetually busy, missed the hussle and bustle of the clan. Ryoku one day decided that he would find a way to make life better for her, and his other two students.

Kimura was not as perceptive as Ryoku which was normal for his age, his preoccupation was getting stronger, strong enough to protect his family, his clan, from something like the massacre happening again. He may have been the young head of the clan of four, but that did not mean that the clan would always remain small, and that did not mean that he was adequately prepared to defend them and himself. He took his studies and his training seriously, knowing that the next time that they were attacked by some other clan, there was a possibility that Ryoku would not be there to scare them off.

#

Three years after Kimura first met Ryoku, a situation presented itself where the clan could grow sooner rather than later.

A neighboring country was at war with another contry, and there were refugees coming into the country, from the regular run of the mill homeless, to soldiers, ronin, and disgraced samurai.

Kimura had been with Tomoe on one of those rare occassion when she decided that they all needed to leave the compound as they needed to purchase supplies, and such from the city. It was during this particular trip that a new batch of refugees from the ongoing war arrived in the city.

Kimura saw that day many suffering people, there were many families, and there were those without, he had asked Tomoe if there was something they could do to help them.

"You are the head of the Ryuuko clan, you may do as you please," Tomoe told him, "But perhaps you should ask Ryoku-sama for advice on the matter."

As they walked on, Kimura noticed that not that many people were actively helping the refugees, most were actually trying to avoid them. He also saw some people the helped by giving money were ambushed by others near alleyways, and lost what they had, and in some cases their lives. Generosity was dangerous, it seemed, so was charity, but Kimura still wanted to help some of the people in some way.

Later that evening, Kimura approached Ryoku..

"Ryoku-sensei..ano.." Kimura said, "I want to help the refugees...but I don't know how."

"I will go to the city and invite people to stay in the compound while there is still war in their country," Ryoku said, "How does that sound?"

"That sounds great," Kimura said, "But...don't invite dangerous people.."

"I will try," Ryoku said, "Whoever comes, will be your responsibility, do you understand me?"

"Hai sensei," Kimura said, "I will take full responsibility for them and their actions."

"You know what," Ryoku said, "I'll take care of them, you just continue your studies and training, and as k Tomoe to teach start teaching you about your duties as head of the clan, she should know about them."

"Hai, sensei," Kimura said, "So you will be acting head while I continue to train and study?"

"...Hai, I will," Ryoku said.

*

Ryoku met up with his other selves in the city, in a gambling den that Kaoru frequented, looking like a boy most of the time, which is how she was actually allowed in.

As soon as the Ryoku that tailed Kaoru entered, the den cleared of patron. Following that one was the Assassin's assassin Ryoku, then the Ryuumusha entered last, the last one being the true Ryoku, Ryuumusha meaning dragon warrior as that was more or less what he was in that form.

The three forms that met were essentially three parts of a single whole, not really needing to meet up, but three separate heads were better than one when it came to remembering things, and Ryoku needed to be sure that his careful planning was flawless, or as close to that goal as possible.

He planned on the Ryuuko clan to be the royals of the samurai world, with Kimura as the first lord, which based on his progress was a very possible future, given seven more years.

When he was done planning, and bouncing off ideas on his other selves, the three left and went about their recruiting business.

The Bodyguard Ryoku was in charge of gathering up soldiers and ronin to be the military of the Ryuuko clan, or the future of the Ryuuko clan. They needed to be slightly experienced and at the same time still young, and slightly impressionable.

The Assassin's assassin Ryoku was the one in charge of gathering other assassins, while the future samurai run country did not appear to have any ninja in it, Ryoku wanted there to be some that actually worked in the shadows, traditional ninja, prepared to act and perform missions that ninja would be unable to, due to training and beliefs.

Leaving Ryuumusha Ryoku to be the one to invite people to stay in the compound.

"I am Ryuumusha Ryoku," he introduced himself to a small family, which consisted of a mother, a father, and six chilren, two little girls and four boys, all teens.

"What do you want with us?" the mother asked, "We already told you people we will not sell our children."

"We will not be parted from one another," the father said.

"I am not here for such trivial thngs," Ryoku said, "My apprentice, the young head of the Ryuuko clan invites you and your family to stay in his clan compound for as long as you are refugees in this country."

"And what does this young head expect from my family for his generosity," the father asked, suspicious of the offer.

"He claims to simply want to help," Ryoku said, "I will return for your decision later as I still need to find others worthy of the young head's generosity and the protection of the Ryuuko clan."

When Ryuumusha left, they were approached by Shinobu Ryoku, the assassin's assassin.

"You should take Kimura up on his offer," Shinobu Ryoku said, "He is young, and truly only wants to help."

Shinobu Ryoku then walked away, unseen by the crowd, surprising the family, and not giving the adults enough time to respond.

The same thing happened to all the other families that Ryoku approached with the offer.

Each of the families had been chosen not by how many children they had, but by the family specialty or craft. Ryoku wanted each family to be of use to Kimura, and one day possibly be adopted somehow into the Ryuuko clan.

On the way back to the compound, Ryuumusha Ryoku was accompanied by his tow other selves, Keigo Ryoku, or Bodyguard Ryoku, having been successful in his recruitment of around twenty-five ronin. Shinobu Ryoku having been able to recruit a total of fifty war orphans whom he would train in the ways of the ninja.

There were roughly fifteen families ranging from five members to fifteen members, not enough to actually fill up the compound that once housed more than a hundred samurai warriors and their families, the Ryuuko clan truly at one time being that great and prolific of a clan.

Kimura met the large group at the gates of the compound accompanying him were Tomoe, Yumi, and Kaoru. Yumi and Kaoru deciding to stay at home that day instead of going to 'work' as they called it.

The invited and recruited people were stunned by who was the young head of the Ryuuko clan. When Ryoku told them that he head was young, they did not think that the boy would be around eight years old. But his eyes looked far older than that at least, as if he had seen the horrors of the world, and still stood strong against such things.

"Welcome to the Ryuuko Clan Compound, I am Ryuuko Kimura," Kimura greeted the new arrivals, he was in his training clothes, and still holding a practice sword in one hand, "Tomoe will show you to where you will be staying."

Tomoe stepped forward and introduced herself, and bid the families to follow her.

The compound being like a small village had smaller districts in it, there was the residential and military districts. There were also three sets of walls. One wall surrounded the entire compound. One wall separated the outer military district from the inner residential district, and the last wall separated the rest of the residential district from the central clan house where the head's family stayed in, where Kimura stayed.

Shinobu Ryoku brought his students to two separate barracks, one for the boys and one for the girls. Training would begin the next day, after they had all gotten sufficient rest, they occupied the military district to the left side of the gate, while Keigo Ryoku and his recruits would take up the right side of the military district. The dividing line being the gate.

*

After Tomoe led each of the fifteen families to fifteen unoccupied and cleaned up houses, the heads of the families insisted that they formally meet with Kimura to express their thanks for his generosity.

She told them that would be able to meet with him at dinner, as all would be made present to attend that event.

The orphans turned ninja trainees were also told by Ryoku that they would be expected at the main house for dinner that night. They were each given a set of full body suits, white in color. They were to wear this uniform whenever they left the barracks unless told otherwise. They were the first true additions of the Ryuuko clan, the first batch of Ryuuko-nins.

The twenty-five recruits were told by Keigo Ryoku that while they were still considered as ronin, they had the chance to swear fealty to Kimura so that they could regain their honor and become samurai once more. They told him that they would think on it, and give their answer after observing their new employer, before swearing anything.

While the new arrivals were getting used to their new surroundings, Kimura, Kaoru, and Yumi, with Ryuumusha Ryoku's help, were busy preparing the food for the feast that was to take place at dinner time.

Kimura knew how to cook due to his frequenting the kitchen while the Tomoe and occassionally Yumi were busily preparing the next meal. Kaoru had been trained in the culinary arts, but smply prefered to gamble in the city, and perform odd jobs that normally were delegated to boys. She, being a bit of a tomboy, was able to fool her employers and the owners of the gambling dens. Yumi being a geisha knew a lot of things her two sisters, both older and younger did not know about, but just like the two she knew how to cook.

What the three of them wondered was where did Ryoku learn how to cook, as well as where did he get so many ingredients. Kimura remembered everything that Tomoe had purchased at the market and remarked that some of the stuff that Ryoku was preparing could not have come from the city.

"Where did you get all of this food, Ryoku-sensei?" Kimura asked.

"From past students," Ryoku answered while chopping up some vegetables and meats, proving that superb sword skills were useful not just in a fight.

"H-how..?" Kimura asked as he watched his sensei perfectly cut up a pig into all the appropriate sizes, and separated all the parts that would not be used in the cooking.

"I will teach you when you are ready," Ryoku told his apprentice, "For now, concentrate on your cooking, this is to be a welcoming feast prepared by the clan head, so do it right."

For once, Ryoku had finally decided to shed his armor while in the presence of the Ryuuko household, as wearing armor in the kitchen was just creepy, he took on the form he used while in the city and not protecting the two girls.

An hour before dinner, Shinobu and Keigo were busy preparing the dinning room for the feast, placing small tables around the room, as well as preparing a seat plan for all those that would be present. Two rooms would be used for the feast, one where the adults would be eating, and one for the children, including the ninja trainees. Kimura being the obvious exception to the adults only rule room.

The tables were set in two rows. The front row was where the men were to sit, and the second row behind the men would be the women. The children did not follow the same seat plan, they were mixed, but at the same time separate, one side of their room was for the children of the families, and the other half was for the trainees.

In the adult's dinning area there was a raised stage where Kimura would sit, Tomoe, Kaoru, and Yumi were not going to be eating with them, as they would be busy running around serving food, and the like. The three Ryoku would sit right below and infront of the raised stage and Kimura.

The ronin's seats were mixed between the ones of the families, there was no real order, but it looked like they were almost all equal.

*

At dinner time, the children were ushered into the room prepared for them by the boyish Kaoru, and served them their food, and told them to tell her if they wanted more.

While the adults were brought into the main dining area, where they were lead to their seats by Tomoe, as Kimura made himself comfortable in his seat, as the three Ryoku sat in front of him.

Everyone had worn their best clothes which wasn't much, the ronin wore what armor they had for some reason.

At the end of the meal, which the new arrivals were even served desert, the silence of the room was broken by one brave soul daring to ask the question on everyone else's minds.

"What do you want in exchange for our living here?" one man asked Kimura.

"Nothing really," Kimura said, "But even though I expect nothing in return for my generosity, you will be expected to do your share of work. It has been three years since the rest of the Ryuuko clan had been killed in an attack on the compound, and it has been left to myself, Tomoe, Yumi, and Kaoru, to take care of everything here."

"You mean to say that the Ryuuko clan is made up of only four members?"

"Yes," Kimura said, "Four members and these three infront of me."

"Thanks you for your generosity, I had thought that an actual clan of able bodied samurai were offering shelter," one man said rising from his sitting position, "But I cannot allow my family to stay in a still potentially dangerous situation such as this. In the morning I will take my family and find shelter elsewhere."

"If that is what you wish, go on ahead," Kimura said, "It is your choice after all whether to stay or leave."

After that no one dared to say anything else, not that they could think of anything else to say. Some looked like they too would leave in the morning, but the ronin looked to be a little curious.

Before Kimura went to bed, he was approached by Ryoku..

"Prepare yourself for battle," Ryoku said, "Those that attacked three years ago are coming back to finish the job."


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter fourteen**_

_*_

_*_

They had received word that the Ryuuko clan had allowed some outsiders to live in their compound. This news was disturbing the sense that they had thought that the Ryuuko clan had already died out, that that demon that had appeared at the last moment had ended their lives and existence, apparently it was not meant to be. The clan continued to exist. It was time for the Izumi clan to finish what they had started those three years ago.

This time they would do a thorough job of the eradication of their long time rival. They even went so far as to hire two hidden villages worth of ninja to finish the job.

What they didn't know was that they were expected. Ryoku's three selves had lead the new arrivals into a sewer system like underground, where they would have to stay the night due to the incoming attack.

"See, we ran away from our war torn country, and have landed ourselves in a compound of death," the one man that said that he would be leaving with his family in the morning, "Where is that little brat claiming to be the head of the Ryuuko clan? I'm sure he's in here somehwere hiding along with the rest of us!"

"Actually he is not in here," Tomoe said, appearing from seemingly out of nowhere, "I am the only member of the Ryuuko clan to be down here, and I am here to make sure that you are kept safe and away from harm."

"You're saying that he's out there?" one woman asked, "He's just a child!"

"He'll be fine," Tomoe said, "He has been training to better defend himself, and the clan."

"A clan of only four people," the man said, "When he's killed, those attackers will come down here after us!"

"You know what! Nevermind! You defend these people! Kimura-sama is an eight year old that is determined to protect all of you! Argh! I'm going up there to help him!" Tomoe shouted in frustration, "You can stay here and cower like mice or rats or whatever! I don't care!"

She grabbed her naginata and left the safety of the underground sanctuary, to fight to defend her home, and her little lord, Kimura.

As Tomoe emerged from the hole which served as one of the entrances to the undergound, Kimura was busy putting on his armor, he needed it as he was not yet that skilled at fighting without it. Unlike Ryoku for that matter who while he didn't need his armor, it was one of the few ways that people could tell each of himself apart.

Kimura would be fighting using a training sword as he was not yet mentally prepared to actually take a life, but was more than capable enough to knock people unconscious.

While he was being trained as a samurai, Ryoku taught him a ninja trick or two, which he could use in battle, one of which being the ability to use chakra, which is why he could be found standing on his roof after successfully donning his armor.

Not surprisingly, Kaoru had taken a liking to the ninja part of the lessons and had been able to get Ryoku to teach a little bit more about that, while not as good as some of Ryoku's other students, she was good enough. She was crouched down in front of Kimura, as his bodyguard for some reason. Yumi had chosen to stand on another roof, looking the part of a ninja just as Kaoru, she too leaned more towards the darker part of the world.

The ronin had decided to sit out the fight, still not sure if serving this eight year old was worth their lives, so they hid themselves, armed to the teeth just in case, but hid themselves. The ninja trainees were secretted away in the underground as they were still not ready for battle, having no training at all.

All the defenders of the compound were perched on the rooftops, which included the three Ryoku and Tomoe. Ryoku was waiting for some reinforcements, he had gone so far as to split himself again, so that his Taijutsu no Tatsujin side could fight in the battle.

The arrival of the Taijutsu no Tatsujin side of Ryoku had surprised Tomoe as he landed on the rooftop that she had chosen to wait on, naginata in hand.

"Who are you?!" Tomoe questioned him, pointing her naginata's sharp edge at him.

"I am...this is kind of hard...hmm...I am the Taijutsu no Tatsujin, I'm here to help," he said to her, "Ryuumusha asked me to come."

"Oh," she said and relaxed her battle ready position, "Ok.."

"Great," he said, "You might want to get ready, they're very close now."

"How can you tell?" she asked.

"I can hear them," he said, then pointed at the main Ryuumusha, "See, Ryuumusha senses their approach too, and is preparing for battle, Shinobu and Keigo as well."

"You know all three of them?" Tomoe asked.

"Yeah..you could say that we're all brothers in a way," Tatsujin said, "You can refer to me as Tatsujin."

"Ok...so when will they arrive?" she asked him.

"In a few seconds," he said.

A few seconds later the duo watched as Ryuumusha began to run to the gate, just as Shinobu opened it allowing their attackers free access to the ground, Keigo summersaulting into the fray. They were fighting what looked to be ninja.

"Ninja? I thought the Izumi clan was going to attack," Tomoe said, "Why aren't we going there to help those three?"

"We're the ones who are going to fight off the Izumi clansmen," he told her, "They are coming from the back, Kimura knows this, which is why he is in the middle of the compound ready and waiting for the time to strike. Just as we are waiting for the samurai to make themselves known."

"Oh."

*

"Let's dance!" Ryuumusha shouted as he began weaving in and out of the mass of bodies that were entering the compound en masse and trying to kill him, and his two other selves.

"Die! Ryuuko scum!" one ninja shouted trying to impale Ryuumusha with his short sword, through the heart, but forgot that Ryuumusha was wearing armor.

Before the ninja could thrust his blade, Keigo drop kicked him, sending him to the floor unconscious. Then ran at the next ninja knocking him out with a palm strike to the gut. While he did have a few weapons on his person, taking out the ninja did not seem to need much effort, therefore he chose not to use them.

The fighting was taking place in the outermost layer of the compound, the military district. Shinobu acted just as an assassin should act. He kept to the shadows striking only when oportune moments presented themselves. Striking with deadly efficiency, relying on the snake style to incapacitate his foes.

Ryuumusha, Shinobu, and Keigo, were enjoying the battle a little too much. They were toying with the ninja, Ryoku had encountered these two clans at one point in their lives as Tatsujin.

The two ninja clans were the Kuma clan, who prefered the use of claws, and the Ibara clan, who used short swords. Both clans were close combat specialist, who were outclassed and outmatched. The moment they rushed into the compound from one direction they had already lost.

No matter how many claws and short swords were whirling about, the three opponents of the ninjas were far to fast and strong, and prepared for them.

"This is getting boring...fast..." the three parts of the whole said at the same time, "Let's end this."

They jumped onto the gate of the wall that separated the military district from the residential district. Ryuumusha morphed slowly into his dragon form, Keigo also began to morph into the phoeix form, leaving Shinobu to morph into a basilisk of all things.

The dragon and Phoenix took to the sky, and the basilisk spread his large and long body around preventing the ninja invaders from escaping. All of their eyes were glowing with emerald fire in one eye and crimson in the other.

The ninja never felt so frightened in their lives, and simply passed out.

"I think I went overboard," the three parts of the whole said, morphed back to their human forms, and began tying up the unconscious men, just as the samurais began their attack from the rear of the compound, climbing over the walls.

*

As soon as the first samurai made himself known, Tatsujin jumped him from the roof, knocking him out by a chop directed on the back of his neck. Tomoe jumping down, bringing down the flat of her blade on another's head.

Rinse and repeat...as the samurai were momentarily shocked into a stupor at finding a woman fighting them, never mind the man, he didn't even have a sword therefore was of no consequence. But a woman, that was something else.

They were shocked out of their reverie by the sight of one of their number being downed by a flying kick to the head, courtesy of Kaoru, looking all ninja like. They were also shocked by the appearance of Yumi, masked as she was she gave them a good show, which caused gysers of blood to sprout from the nasal passageways of those that looked, which resulted in their incapacitation.

While the ninja wannabes and taijutsu master battled with the bulk of the samurai, Kimura singled out the leader of the attack, and with training sword in hand, did battle.

His training sword was a little bit more special than the usual wooden sword, as this one was made out of a chakra absorbing material which siphoned off chakra from its wielder to make it heavier, as a way to strengthen the arms of the trainee. His armor, while providing protection also siphoned off chakra to make it heavier to increase the strength of the other parts of the body, which did not affect him negatively thanks to some potions which Ryoku force fed him after training.

"Just give up little boy," the Izumi samurai said, "You are clearly no match for me. I will let you live if you give up your clan name."

"I refuse," Kimura said as he slashed at his enemy's waist, which was blocked.

Kimura stopped listening to the words and taunts which his enemy was sending his way, and simply focused on fighting. He ignored his screaming and aching muscles calling for rest. He ignored any and all pain which he felt from receiving injuries from his opponent. He simply fought. Blocking and slashing and thrust when openings arose.

He was getting used to the weight of his armor and sword far too quickly for the sword and armor to compensate and fulfill their directives and purposes. In a way, this battle was to be a shortcut for Kimura in his training. The armor also had the ability to heal Kimura no matter the injury so long as the young warrior was fighting, or simply moving, as long as in his mind, he believed the situation to be a life or death one.

On the other side of the compound, having defeated his foes, Ryuumusha the aspect of Ryoku that was teaching Kimura, sensed that his student was losing, and that his training tools were not enough for his student. Hating shortcuts himself, he had no other choice. He had hoped that his student would be a little bit older before taking someone else's life, as well as working hard to gain the skills he, Ryoku, wanted to pass on to his apprentice.

Today was the day his student was to become a man, an eight year old one, but who cares.

Ryoku stopped time, and gathered all his parts to himself, save for his past self, and teleported beside his student. Placing his hands on his student's head, he transferred all the knowledge he wanted to cram into his student's mind, as well as the experience necessary for the body to apply the knowledge.

"You have worked hard, and as I do not wish for my students to pass on before their time I have granted you all I was to teach you," Ryoku spoke directly to his student's mind, "I name you Seigi Musei, silent justice, do me proud and remember the reasons why you do what you do."

After saying what he needed and doing what was needed. Ryoku moved back to where he had been and separated himself once again, then making time flow forward once again.

When time flowed again, Kimura continued fighting, his body catching up to his knowledge, every second that passed. But looked like it wouldn't be enough for the boy, as even though as each passing second, his body caught up to his knowledge, the armor and sword continued to get heavier, and harder to carry. His movements continued at the same pace, and while he suddenly knew a great number of strikes to perform, his body was not fast enough to execute them with the sword and armor being too much for him to move at the speeds that he needed to move.

"Give up boy, you are clearly no match for me," the Izumi samurai taunted Kimura, "I can see you trying to attack me, but it seems like you are too slow for me."

"You're right," Kimura said, dropping his sword, "I am too slow for you."

"Then you are giving up? Good."

"Just let me take this armor off, then we can continue," Kimura said, and proceeded to remove his armor, the Izumi samurai letting him, knowing that even if the boy gained a boost in speed by taking off the armor he would still be able to kill him.

'_I have yet to forge a sword, but even without a sword in my hand, it is in my heart and mind,_' Kimura thought to himself, remembering one of Ryoku's lessons, '_A samurai is just as capable of fighting without a sword as when he has one held in his hands...Kaze no Yaiba.._'

He had been kneeling when he reminded himself of that lesson and activated one of the skills Ryoku had taught him. Grasped invisible in his hand as he stood was a sword made of wind. Invisible to the eye, but with the ability to cut through stone.

"You will continue to fight me in the state you are in? Do you hope to beat me without a sword or your armor to protect you?" the Izumi samurai said, "Ha! You may have become a little faster without the weight to hold you down, but I am still faster than you!"

The Izumi samurai then dashed, sword drawn, not in Kimura's direction, but in the direction of Kaoru, who had her back to the Izumi leader.

'_I wonder how badly he will react when I kill one of his comrades,_' the Izumi leader thought as he made his way to slash at the exposed back of Kaoru. In his haste and underestimation of Kimura, he did not notice Kimura vanish from his spot. Reappearing in front of him, and pushing him back.

'_Fast.._' was all the Izumi leader could think as Kimura reappeared back where he had been seconds before.

Watching their leader be blown backwards by a child, even one that was the young head of a clan. It shocked and surprised them. Their leader was strong and fast, there was no way that he could easily be defeated. They watched as he picked himself up off of the floor, and dusted his clothes off. His hand still gripping his sword, and he turned to face Kimura.

"Your fight is with me, not with her or any of the others," Kimura stated, "Fight me or surrender, these are your only choices."

"Argh!" the Izumi leader charged Kimura sword drawn, attempting to sink his blade into Kimura's flesh.

When the blade was about to meet Kimura's flesh, he moved. Quicker than a blink of an eye, the child moved. To the people watching the fight, it looked like he had just stepped aside, and the Izumi leader seemed to trip on something rolling forwards, then stopping entirely. No movement for more than a second. The onlookers watched as the body suddenly turned into a puddle of blood.

Kimura had made his first kill.

'_Recall the reasons why you fight, why sometimes you must kill...you are not a murderer, you are a protector, also, had you not killed him, he would have killed you followed by Tomoe, Yumi, and Kaoru,_' Kimura heard Ryoku's voice in his head, '_You may cry for your lost innocence when all is done, but not now. Mourn for the loss of life later, but not now, as there is still much for you to do. Remember that in such situations I cannot interfere._'

'_Hai sensei, arigato,_' he mentally said to his sensei, who had spoken to directly to his mind in the past.

"Who is next?" Kimura asked, his voice flat, devoid of any and all emotion.

The Izumi dropped their weapon, and raised their hands in the sign of surrender, there was no way in their minds that they would be able to defeat the demonic child that had beaten their leader.

"Keigo, have the ronin take the Izumi into custody, along with the Kum-nin and Ibara-nin," Ryuumusha instructed Keigo, not that he needed to, but just to keep up appearances.

"Did I really do the right thing, sensei?" Kimura whispered to his sensei, who stood beside him, as Shinobu proceeded to wash away the puddle of blood.

"You did it to protect your precious people," Ryoku said, "I'm sure you know that you did, but maybe next time you will leave a body to bury..or something like that."

"I guess his sudden shift in attention really got to me, huh sensei," Kimura said.

"I guess," Ryoku said, "While I have taught you more in the span of a single second than in all three years, I fear that there is still much I am able to teach you."

"So..you'll stay?"

"I will stay, until you are fifteen," Ryoku said, "By that time, you should be worthy of the title of head of the Ryuuko clan."

"What do we do with the Izumi, Kuma, and Ibara?"

"Tomorrow," Ryoku said, "Let us discuss this tomorrow."

"Hai Ryoku-sensei."


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter fifteen**_

_*_

_*_

After the battle, the people in the underground were brought up to the surface, and allowed to return to the houses assigned to them. They had not seen how the battle had progressed from start to finish, but it was impossible to say that the Ryuuko clan had lost the fight. There was even no sign that any attack had occurred.

"Thanks for coming to our aid, Tatsujin-sama," Tomoe told Ryoku's taijutsu no tatsujin self.

"I was glad to be of service," he said to her, and leapt over the wall, and vanished, rejoining Ryoku's main person, Ryuumusha.

Shinobu vanished into his side of the military district with his students in tow, while Keigo entered his side, collecting the twenty-five ronin, that were promising to swear fealty to Kimura whom they had watched do battle. For an eight year old to impress such men was really something.

Ryuumusha Ryoku brought Kimura directly to his room and lay him in his futon, putting the child magically to sleep, as he knew that such an awakening was quite taxing on the body and mind. He then did the same for the women of the clan. When he was finally the only one left awake, he retreated to his own room to sleep, as there really wasn't anything else left for him to do.

*

In the morning..

The Izumi that had surrendered informing Kimura that the only ones left in their own compound were the women and children as all the men had gone with the war party to the Ryuuko compound. Which meant that Kimura had all of the Izumi men as prisoners. Based on some advice from Keigo, he told the Izumi that if they swore fealty to him and to serve him as his vassals, he would let them go, live, and be with their families, so long as they served him. They agreed. Live to fight another day, but this time in the name of a lord, their chosen lord. Ryuuko Kimura, the eight year old Samurai Lord.

The Kuma and Ibara ninja had also agreed to dissolve their clans, and join the Ryuuko ninja division, or Ryuuko branch house. Expanding the numbers of Ryuuko assassins to be taught the proper ways of a ninja by Shinobu Ryoku.

With his exploits that night, the twenty-five ronin, ceased to be ronin, and became samurai under his command, and went out into the city with Keigo to see if they could recruit some more ronin and other warriors to join their ranks.

Of the fifteen families, five left the compound to look for a more secure place to stay, even though the women and children were fine with the compound, the men still refused to stay, and child that could have caused the surrender of another clan should be considered a demon.

The remaining ten families decided to be more useful around, more than the duties they were assigned, they found buildings in the military district where they could practice their crafts, and began to practice, teaching their eldest children their family specialties. The younger boys of each family went over to Keigo to learn how to fight, while the girls went with their mothers to Tomoe to help around the compound.

The compound while not consisting of one single clan, was once again lively. While Kimura no longer needed to learn things from Ryoku, he insisted that his sensei teach him more, since no one ever stopped learning and knowledge gained was never enough, and there was always room for improvement.

Yumi returned to her work in the pleasure district of the city, but this time was no longer protected by Shinobu Ryoku, but the best of the former Ibara-nin were assigned as her protection detail. After three years of being the most successful in her profession, she decided that she would start her own pleasure house. As what she had earned over the years went to Tomoe, she needed to ask her sister for some funds for her to start her own business. The only reason Tomoe got mad at her was because she actually really did give all of her earnings to her, and did not save any for such a day.

Ryuumusha gave Kimura some money to give to Yumi to start her business, which she gladly accepted, it wasn't like she could decline something from Kimura. His puppy-dog eyes could make a dragon do anything, not that Ryuumusha had ever fallen for it, no siree.

Kaoru used the first oppurtunity to escape from the compound to get back to her hobby of gambling, but accidentally bumped into Yumi just as she was sneaking out. Yumi convinced her to start a gambling parlor of her own, as a partner for Yumi with her own business. Gambling after all can be considered as a pleasure, just as massage, and food and drink were as well.

#

While Yumi and Kaoru were in the city looking for a building to purchase for their needs. Ryoku had decided to hand over some scrolls on elemental manipulation via the use of chakra to Kimura for the lad to learn something else, something that would benefit future generations of samurai. He also gave the child an instruction manual on how to forge his own special sword, something that could be passed as an heirloom.

Kimura was delighted with the prospect of learning new things, and went right to reading the things, while he did that Ryoku teleported to the city, to keep an eye out on the two girl since his other personas were busy with their own tasks. Keigo with the soldiers and Shinobu with his students.

The Ryuuko clan had at one time been a powerful clan, rich, and prosperous. They had a hand in many businesses, but due to the massacre three years prior, others had taken their place. It was high time that the clan once again dabbled in the business world, as well as extended their reach into the underworld. Which was what Ryoku had planned for the two women looking for a property to purchase.

Kimura was the Samurai Lord, why not have two women run the underworld in this part of the continent.

One thing that was not mentioned in the comic books was that summon creatures could turn into humans, as in they had a human form, one which allowed them to mingle freely with people. It was entirely Ryoku's fault.

He summoned some summons that could help with construction.

Yumi and Kaoru were able to purchase a rather large piece of land, it was an empty lot, but they figured they could get some help from home, or from some of Yumi's clients that would do anything for her.

"I have some men that will begin construction immediately," Ryuumusha Ryoku said after approaching them, followed by the summons in human form.

"Ryoku-sama," the two women greeted, bowing to him, "Thank you for the help."

"Get to it you louts!" Ryuumusha ordered the summons and followed them onto the property, handing out orders and acting like an architect and engineer at the same time. He wore not his armor, but looked normal, human, wearing normal clothes, but retaining his eye patch.

*

It took the summons a whole month to get the place built, decorated, and such. All materials were bought and paid for, most of the furniture in the place was hand crafted, each one made by the summons, depicting what they were before they became summons.

The walls and support structures of the place was riddled with spells, seals, and runes, which would ensure that the structure would stand the test of time. Ryuumusha, used this project to further Kimura's education on seals.

Now that the building itself was finished, the problem of employees arose or lack thereof. Kimura proposed that they, meaning himself and the samurai, wander around and find people that looked like they needed some work. Or perhaps get some of the teens in the compound to train under Yumi and eventually work at the place, after all geisha were not prostitutes but artists. There was prestige in the profession, and there were many things to learn. They would learn everything that made Yumi herself a powerful person.

"Orphans," Ryuumusha Ryoku said in manner of answer of their employment plight, "They will be looking for a place to belong, as well as a purpose and stability."

"I'll look for some boys in need of work," Kaoru said, "Preferably thieves, more trustworthy than the run of the mill boys."

"Hanzo," Ryuumusha Ryoku said.

"Hai, Ryoku-sama?" Hanzo said. Hanzo was the second-in-command of the Ryuuko ninja division, and was the former heir of the now non-existent Ibara clan.

"Patrol the slave rings," Ryoku instructed, "Buy us some slaves, its the easiest place to find recruits."

"Right away...but.."

"In your back pocket," Ryoku said.

"Hai," Hanzo said, checking for the money, then vanished to proceed with his mission.

"With that solved, there is still the problem of the local crime lords," Yumi said, "My old workplace was owned by one of the most powerful, what do we do, should they try and snuff us out?"

"Use your protection detail as you see fit," Kimura said, "They are more than enough to perform certain acts."

"Hai, Kimura-sama," Yumi said.

Kimura, through the sudden influx of information and experience, had become a little bit too mature for an eight year old, but that could not be helped, he needed a more mature outlook on life.

"You have plans sensei?" Kimura asked, having already found pieces of a large puzzle his sensei was playing with.

"I have many plans," Ryoku said, "With you at the center of a nation, right beside legends."

"How long do we have left?" Kimura asked, somehow knowing that the plans had to do with a fierce battle, for why else would he teach him how to fight.

"When you are fifteen, the wars will spill out and into this land," Ryoku said, "You will protect the land, while my other students and I do battle with a beast, unless you want in on that fight."

"I will defend the people when that time comes," Kimura promised, "While it may not be glorious as what I imagine your battle will be, someone will have to defend the helpless."

"You do that," Ryoku said, "But for now, don't you have some recruiting to do?"


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter sixteen**_

_*_

_*_

In the span of seven years, Yumi and Kaoru had been able to overthrow the aristocracy of the underworld, and taken it over placing then at the top, right below Kimura. They had managed to do such a feat by doing as they were told, using their protection details, performing assassinations and the like to get the power they needed to rule. The whole of the underworld of the land was solidly loyal to the Ryuuko clan, specifically the two women. Half of them still believing that Kaoru was a man.

The ruling lord of the land permitted the many clans of the land do as they pleased, so long as they obeyed his orders should he ever have any. This practice made the people more indebted to the clans, specifically the Ryuuko clan. Some claimed that they would rather bow to Kimura than to the lord of the land.

Whenever there was a drought, famine, flood, or whatever, anywhere in the land, Kimura was the first to act, asking for advise from his companions on what could be done. The clan had become prosperous once again, under the rule of Kimura, and his wise beyond his years self. Some scholars that had been thrown out of the lord of the land's court had been taken in, and who chose to serve as his advisers in some things, while at the same time learning from the ever knowing to almost all knowing Ryoku.

Kimura had managed to earn the love of the people from all of his acts of kindness and generosity. Warriors flocked to his side, not caring at all for his age, for them anyone that could go toe to toe with the Taijutsu no Tatsujin was more than okay in their books, and worth fighting beside and for. Ryoku had made it a point to pit himself in that form against his young student, and see how far along he really was in becoming a formidable warrior.

The match had taken place in an clear field, on either side of the battle were the two combatants. Kimura armed with his own twin blades, which he himself had forged called Okibi and Touketsu. Okibi had been forged with hottest of flames that Kimura could produce, and even asked Ryoku to help with the flames. Touketsu had been forged with the by the heat of frozen fire, something which apparently only Ryoku could conjure. Okibi was to be used mainly for offense, withe Touketsu as defense. Kimura created a sword style of his own, which used balance to bring about the perfect defense and offense. Okibi was the tiger, while Touketsu was the dragon.

While Kimura would battle with his blades, Tatsujin obviously fought with his entire body.

The fight was an idea which popped into Tomoe's head one day, she simply wanted know how Kimura would fare against the Taijutsu no Tatsujin himself, a man unmatched in his field of expertise that clans that specialized in hand to hand or weapons combat had been trying to best him, whole clans fought him and lost. It would be something to see Kimura fight against such a master.

Win or lose, Kimura would get something from the battle.

The battle was a fast paced as well as intensely intense one. Steel flashed here and there, and the only time that any of the onlookers could see both fighters was when they impacted against one another's defenses. Other than that they were streaks in the field. At one point they had managed to appear in twenty-seven places at one time, no one could tell which one was an after image, and which one of them was the real pair, as it happened so suddenly, moments later the images vanished as if dashing away.

They really did fight toe to toe, but when Tatsujin released his aura, unleashed his full strength, or what people perceived it as being such, the fight became one sided from there. After Kimura was blasted into the trunk of a tree with such force that seventeen trees behind it were felled, did the match end and Tatsujin was declared the winner.

"You have grown," Ryoku had said, blending his four faces into one when he said that to Kimura, an act which confused the young lord.

It was later explained for Kimura that Ryoku had many special abilities which were not limited to temporarily stopping time and being in more than one place at any given time. Which explained the existence of Shinobu and Keigo.

After the fight many young swordsmen came to him asking for him to teach them, he told them that he could not do that as what he knew would only be for his children in the future to learn. But kenjutsu itself was taught by his master-at-arms Keigo Ryoku. Those young swordsmen enlisted in Kimura's personal army in order to further their skills, and grow alongside fellow warriors.

At fifteen, Kimura had the backing of enough people to overthrow the country's current leader, but instead of acting on such impulses and suggestions, he stayed true to his course, and prepared for the war ahead, such trivial matter such as who was the leader of the land could wait until after the war was won.

It was also that year that the three Ryoku bid Kimura farewell, and left to join the battle with the Ten Tailed Beast. In the distance, Kimura who had watched them leave, saw two more figures appear beside the three, and he watched as the three became one, and that one rose into the air as a dragon.

"Ryuumusha indeed," Kimura mumbled as he reentered the compound, the gate guards were just as surprised by what they too had been privy to see.

*

The lord of the land had called in all of the samurai and warriors of the land to protect him and his city. He showed very little care for the well being of the people, which was the reason why Kimura decided to disobey orders and order his men to protect the people, himself heading for the invaders and defending the people personally.

Yumi and Kaoru were the first ones to respond to such a declaration of indenpendence from the lord of the land, they immediately alerted the underworld to what was going on and what needed to be done. The Ryuuko clan was calling all men and women to arms, to defend themselves, their neighbors, their homes, and their country.

The reason why other countries had refugees was because the rulers were ill equipped to deal with invasions and wars of any sorts, thinking themselves protected enough, their people replaceable. But not Ryuuko Kimura, he saw everyone as precious to him, like family.

Not everyone in the land had access to steel, but there were large deposits of iron ore all over the land, which was why that metal was used to make the weapons for most of the people. Every man and woman was equipped with something to defend themselves and their comrades with. The cities, towns, and villages were turned into fortresses, thanks to the seal masters that were guided and taught by the Ryoku.

"Smaller invasionary forces will be making attempts to take over the cities towns," Kimura told his appointed generals, "Defend them to the best of your abilities, use everything you can, contact Hanzo if you need ninja aid."

"Hai," the generals said in unison, each man representing one of the regions of the land.

"What about you, Kimura-sama?" one general ask.

"I will be leading my personal guard into battle with the main force," Kimura informed them, "Defend your homes, while I divert the attention of the main force at the border, until we receive reinforcement from the capital, or I somehow manage to beat them back."

"Y-your personal guard!? But that's only twenty-five men!" a general exclaimed, "You'll need more men!"

"They are all that I will need to defend my home," Kimura said, "I have been taught by the best, and therefore I know that I can and will live to see the end of this war."

"We will beat back our own foes, and come to reinforce you," the generals agreed.

"If you insist," Kimura said, "We ride to meet adversity in the morning."

*

Twenty-six riders arrived at the border..

"How many do you suppose there are?" one of his guards asked another.

"Five thousand perhaps, maybe more," the other said, while the rest attempted to count the army of ants.

"Shut it, you two," Kimura said.

"Yes sir, sorry sir," they said.

He looked on seeing the rows upon rows of soldiers flowing into the valley which they were at one end of. The valley was supposed to be a pass which was the quickest way into the heart of the land. It was also believed to be undefendable, which was why the main invading force chose to use it to enter the land.

"We move to the pass," Kimura said, "We'll fight them there."

The pass that he was speaking about was at the far end of the valley, it was narrow enough to only allow twenty-seven columns of people to pass through, the walls were high enough that one would not be able to see if anyone was hidden there, lying in wait.

"Ten to a side, ready your bows," Kimura ordered, "Snipe them as best as you can, and don't get yourselves killed."

"Hai!" twenty of his guard said as they moved into position, while five remained to assist their lord.

"We who remain will charge into battle," Kimura said, "Swords drawn, how's that sound?"

"Insane."

"Crazy."

"Stupid."

"Reckless."

"When do we start?"

"Now," Kimura said as he led his men to the mouth of the narrow pass. He was the only one not wearing any armor. His compaions were in full battle gear, prepared for any eventuality.

"Do we charge now?" one asked.

"No," Kimura said, "We wait for them to be close enough to scoff at us and think of us as no threat."

After issuing his orders he plopped down on the ground, and began to meditate, he had received some sage training, and he needed to gather up some of that energy for the fight ahead.

Kimura held was contracted to two clans, the Ryuu or Dragon, and the Tora or Tiger summon clans. Gathering sage chakra when contracted with summons allowed the sage to gain some of their traist, in Kimura's case his physical appearance changed and made him look like Ryuumusha Ryoku, his clothes which was actually his armor in disguise morphed as well as his body, gaining traits similar to his sensei's armor and body.

The five samurai with him also began to meditate, but insted of drawing energy from nature, they concentrated their energy, and made it flow around them, creating a protective barrier as well as enhancing their body to be able to fight at maximum capacity and efficiency.

By the time the invaders saw the six samurai sitting on the ground in front of the pass, they believed that they were nothing to worry about and marched on. It was only when they were close enough to notice that they were meditating that they started to have doubts about the sanity of the six people.

But it was only when some of them noticed that some of their comrades were suddenly falling to the ground only to be trampled on by the rest that a sense of dread filled their beings.

The closer they got, the stronger the feeling of dread grew.

"It is time," Kimura whispered to his men, when the invaders were only a few meters away from their sitting forms.

The six stood up from their sitting positions and drew their swords, and simply rushed the invaders, within the span of little more than a blink of an eye, they were upon the invaders, with the twenty men on either side of the narrowing canyon at the end of the valley peppering the army with arrows.

The attacking army didn't know exactly what hit them. They were being pushed back, not so much by a large and unmovable force, but by the sheer number of bodies being felled each passing second. The defenders of the country sure were fierce, everyone at the front of the column had been felled in a matter of seconds and the rest were falling prey to the claws by which the defenders were slaying them.

It was like fighting a dragon and a tiger, strong, powerful, fast, agile, unbeatable, unmovable, and unpredictable.

When the canyon wall archers ran out of arrows, they too drew their blades and literally jumped into the fray, swords brandished and hungrily drank the blood of their fallen foes. Each slash and slice had a purpose, and their purpose was to stop the advance of the enemy, and possibly push them back.

As he was fighting, he did not let loose all of his might upon the invading force, it was only when he saw the massive figure of the Juubi towering over the rear of the army that he knew he needed to hold nothing back.

*

The Juubi had apparently chosen where the supposed final battle was to take place. It had chosen a small valley, one where its army of manipulated humans were passing to invade yet another country. One which was being defended by twenty-six samurai.

Ryoku was the first to notice as he was the one closest to the beast, looking into the valley he spotted Kimura leading the samurai against a five thousand strong army of warriors. And the lad seemed to be winning. He also noticed when his student had noticed the towering monstrosity which was at the rear of the army.

"Takeshi! Have your ninja engage the army below!" Ryoku shouted.

"Hai!" Takeshi shouted back, and relayed such orders to the closest of his followers.

The ninjas that had accompanied them to this final battle descended upon the army, jutsu flying, and weapons raining down on the army.

"Kimura-sama!" one ninja called out, it was one of the long-term mission Ryuuko-nins that had been sent out to locate the Rikudou Sennin.

"Shiro! What are you doing here?" Kimura asked his subordinate as the younger teen appeared fighting beside him.

"Takeshi-sama ordered all ninja to attack the invading army!" Shiro told his lord, "This is it, the final battle against the Juubi! I think you should go up there with the other masters, they'll need your sword!"

Kimura did not think twice, he rushed through his foes, slashing left right up down, taking lives as he rushed for the side of the valley to join his sensei and fellow students.

"Kimura, so glad that you could drop by," Ryoku said, his daggers in hand, preparing to leap toward the massive foe, "We must keep the beast occupied, for only Takeshi can beat this foe, not even I have the power to do so."

"Distract it? Why can't Takeshi-san fight it along with us?" Kimura asked, his swords still in hand, and prepared to deal some elemental damage on their primal foe.

"He will be employing the use of some very intricate seals," Ryoku informed his student, "Our job is to distract Juubi and weaken it as much as possible."

"Alright, I'm in, when do we begin?" Kimura asked.

"As soon as Sakuran," Ryoku said and pointed at the woman, "Makes Takeshi invisible, which would be...NOW!"

At that word, Ryoku leapt into battle, disappearing and reappearing around the Ten Tailed Beast at irregular intervals and in random places. Following him was Sakuran the Gensou Shishou, attacking with taijutsu she had picked up from her husband, which reminded Ryoku of some of the things Senju Tsunade of the comics could do. One punch from Sakuran forced the beast back a few paces with the sheer force she employed.

Sakuran wasn't the only one with such strength, Ryoku could do such damage as well, but he preferred speed over strength for some reason. It was probably due to speed reminding him of flying so much, and that he was more annoying with his zipping here and there, and everywhere, causing minor cuts and scratches to appear on the beast's hide. He was also the only one that actually caused some damage.

Shiokaze tried her hand at actually freezing part of the beast, most especially his tails as their swishing about could cause untold damage. With the power of the wind, the water, and more, she summoned up water from out of the air and sent ice shards at the beast.

After several hours of fighting, the distraction crew grew eventually grew tired, but Takeshi was still no where in sight, which meant that his jutsu was still incomplete, and the Beast was advancing on his position. So the distraction crew did the only thing that they could think of. They summoned their summons to aid them in stalling the beast.

Sakuran's were the slugs of all creatures, their acids dealing some damage to the beast. Her children had forsaken the battle below to fight alongside their father and mother. Theirs were the wolves and toads. The Samurai and Yakuza of the summon society. Shiokaze herself, summoning up the octopus and squid clans, who did not necessarily need water to thrive, fight, or survive. When Kimura's steel didn't seem to be enough he called forth the dragon and tiger clans to aid him in battle.

It was Ryoku that surprised them all, even the Juubi who was the first to really see him and do battle with him, no matter how short of a meeting and battle it was.

He visibly split into five parts, Ryuumusha, Shinobu, Keigo, Tatsujin, and Ryoku. Ryuumusha morphed into a dragon, Shinobu into a serpent, Keigo into a phoenix, Tatsujin into a massive tortoise, and Ryoku into a tiger. These five forms were larger than life and seemed to be as massive as the Juubi itself.

While the beast was intent on destroying the distractions while at the same time searching for his main foe, he was able to dish out just as much as he got and more. While he found the distractions pesky and annoying, he had managed to deal some damage unto them as well. Energy attacks, physical attacks, and even some mental ones. To add some more confusion to the chaos, he even added a whole lot of killing intent into the mix.

The killing intent was too much for some of the soldiers in his own army of death and destruction, causing one thousand of the still fighting men to die all because of it.

To make counter the killing intent, Ryoku's five forms roared or screeched bringing forth magic which turned into a sudden burst of the same patronus army that he had used against Dranos. The presence of such pure creatures or magical constructs aided the people on Ryoku's side, and spread a bit more fear into the hearts of the invaders that had long since been fully corrupted by Juubi's evil.

When Ryoku suddenly sensed that Takeshi was about done with his seal work, he latched onto the Juubi, curling his long draconic body around the beast binding it as much as he could, the serpentine body following suit, then the tiger holding it down with the help of the turtle. The phoenix rained fire down from the heavens, causing it lots of burning holy pain.

The summons took these immediate acts as signs for them too to act in such a manner, they didn't know why the beast had to be held down, but they did as their teacher was doing, their summoners helping out in whatever ways they could, using jutsu and the like to keep the behemoth in place. They all knew that they wouldn't be able to hold the blasted thing for long, and it came as such a relief to them when Takeshi appeared from under the illusion, and spread out his arms, sword and staff in hand.

He then did something that they had only seen Ryoku do. He split himself, but not into five, but into seven, six bodies moving to form a seven point star around the beast, the connecting lines were drawn in glowing energy.

When the seal array was prepared, the five Ryoku untangled themselves from the beast and teleported themselves and their allies out from within the array, which seconds later lit up.

"FUUIN!!!" was the clearest thing anyone heard over the rapidly screaming winds that filled the battlefield. The Juubi let out one last beastial roar of defeiance, before its body fell to the ground, motionless, and lifeless. Its energies were seen as being sucked into the seal array, and its influence on the world draining into the seal array. Only Ryoku knowing that his student had sealed the great evil within himself.

Takeshi then became one once again, and raised an arm into the air, following such a motion, the body of the beast too rose up into the air, along with a great amount of rock and earth. Some of which Ryoku was supplying magically into the mix. It began to rise slowly at first, then eventually began to pick up speed, leading to the eventual rocketting up past the atmosphere into space. Where, after closing his hand into a fist, the massive amounts of rock and earth formed a cocoon around the body of the beast, sealing it for all eternity, aided at the same time by the meager arsenal of magic that Ryoku had managed to pass on to his student.

The deed was finally done, and the world was saved from destruction.

Takeshi turned from his work to look upon his family and friends, then smiled as he raised an arm in victory, which was the sign for everyone else to erupt in shouts of joy, and cheers that everything was finally over.

For now.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter seventeen**_

_*_

_*_

After battle, Ryoku returned to his mountain home, and set up his house, and the pens for all his creatues again, as well as brought out all of his scrolls and books again, reapplying the map of the world on the ceiling once again. His first task had finally been completed, and it was time for him to begin to enjoy life as it were for the next several thousand years or something like that.

*_flashback to right after the battle*_

Takeshi had spoken with his sensei for a little while, also introducing himself to his fellow students, even though they were all taught different fields. After which, Ryoku was formally introduced to Sakuran, Sasuke and Naruto, Takeshi's eldest and youngest sons.

After some interaction with one another, Takeshi told his sensei that the fight was not yet truly over, there was still much to do, and even without the Juubi to direct all the hate and conflict in the world, it was still there, waiting and festering in the hearts of many a man, and Takeshi could not simply sit idly by and let such things fester, he had to do something about it, so long as the threat was present. His family wholeheartedly supporting him on with his quest. All he needed was Ryoku's blessing, and if possible, aid, something which Ryoku had refused to supply.

"It is your quest, I shall leave it up to you," Ryoku told his first student, "I have shown you the way and helped you obtain the tools..You have done me proud so far, I know that you will continue to do so for the rest of your natural life."

"Arigato sensei," Takeshi said bowing the lowest he could go.

"Your welcome, Takeshi-kun," Ryoku said.

*

Shiokaze was genuinely happy to have been able to prevent the Beast from destroying the world, and she was more than happy to have done so alongside the one that had apparently been prophesized to doing such a thing too, along with her other fellow students. She had worked hard to teach the Rikudou Sennin how to become an actual Sennin. It was very pleasing to know that all the hours she put into teaching him had paid off.

Apparently all of the one time students, whether direct or indirect, had become a sage in their own rights. Shiokaze herself was the Uzumaki Sennin. Takeshi was the Rikudou Sennin. Kimura was in a way a sennin as well but preferred to be known as the title Ryoku had given him which was Seigi Musei. Sakuran was an indirect student of Ryoku's as it had been her grandmother that had received advice, though a little unwanted, from Ryoku all those years ago, while not being referred to as one, she was still the Slug/Namekuji Sennin, but preferred to be called the Gensou Shishou.

She learned that the twenty-five personal guards of Kimura knew a little bit of what it meant to be a sage, but chose not to practice something which they believed was only worthy of their lord.

"You have done well my student," Ryoku said to her in greeting, "I am proud of your success in teaching Takeshi your arts."

"I only guided him in the right direction," Shiokaze told her sensei, "He did everything else on his own."

"I know you too are proud of your actions as well as your ability to teach," Ryoku said to her sagely, "Teach no other the sage arts other than the summons themseles, as they will be the teachers of the next generation of sennin."

"What of the other things that you have taught me?" Shiokaze asked.

"You may pass those on to your clansmen," Ryoku said, "May Uzu no Kuni, grow and prosper, Uzumaki Shiokaze."

"I will do my best sensei," she told him, then bowed to him in respect before bidding her fellow students goodbye.

*

Kimura was proud of his personal guard, they had managed to slay over a thousand of the corrupt souls before the arrival of those ninja reinforcements. His generals were unable to keep their promises of coming to his aid it seemed but he didn't mind, as he believed that they had been held back by some fighting. He didn't know what the nature of their struggles were, but he knew that something must have held them back.

After finally having a chance to speak with his fellow students, he had bid them all goodbye, as he still needed to round up his people and get back home to see how the rest of the country was faring.

"Tetsu no Kuni has experienced a civil war while you have been battling for the continuation of the existence of the world of life," Ryoku told his student, whom he had found sitting at the mouth of the narrow path that he had been meditating at before fighting the Juubi's forces.

"Do you know how my people have fared?" Kimura asked his all knowing sensei.

"I know that you respect the authority of your _lord_," Ryoku said, "But in this case, I do hope that you accept the choice of the people."

"What do you mean...You have got to be kidding me..I'm only fifteen for crying out loud," Kimura said, coming to a certain conclusion, then said accusingly, "You planned this didn't you!"

"Nothing of the sort..well not entirely anyway," Ryoku admitted, "I had planned on your becoming a legend..but well...enjoy your new status, daimyo-dono."

"Fine...I guess I'll just sit here and wait for one of my generals to arrive, huh.." Kimura said, resigned but accepting his fate.

"That seems to be the only thing that you can do," Ryoku said, "What did you think of my other students?"

"They're great! Living legends the two of them," Kimura praised his senpais.

"Well, so are you, Kimura-kun, so are you," Ryoku said, "And what about me?"

"Sensei is sensei," Kimura said cheekily, "What more can I say?"

"Fine, be that way," Ryoku said, "As you are the last remaining student of mind in this valley, I will accompany you on your wait, as your guards wait with you."

"What of the dead in the valley? Do we just leave their bodies lying like that?" Kimura suddenly asked.

Ryoku slammed a hand on the ground, which made the earth swallow up the bodies, clearing and cleaning up the valley.

"There, all of them buried," Ryoku said, "You might want to set up a fortress somewhere along this valley, but not let any town of any sort be constructed here."

"I know, it would probably freak me out if I were to find the remains of thousand of warriors while digging in the ground for whatever reason," Kimura said, then asked, "What do you intend to do now, sensei?"

"I intend to enjoy life in a mountain somewhere in Mori no Kuni," Ryoku honestly said, "If you want to know where that would be, feel free to get directions from Takeshi, he lived there for most of his early life."

"Your favorite student," Kimura stated.

"My first student," Ryoku said, "I haven't played favorites you know."

"Really?"

"Yes really," Ryoku said, then changed topics, "How are Tomoe, Yumi, and Kaoru?"

"Tomoe is engaged to one of my generals, Yumi has a daughter of her own, but is not married, and Kaoru is...I really don't know what her relationship or marital status is, and I don't care to ask," Kimura admitted.

"It seems like one of your generals has arrived, try to act casual or confused, or normal," Ryoku said, "I hope to see you again, or at least be invited to your wedding, whenever it may be.."

"Not anytime soon," Kimura said as he lay down on the ground and closed his eyes to rest up for the headaches that were sure to arrive soon.

"I'll be seeing you then," Ryoku said as he ascended to the heavens in his dragon form.

*_flashback end_*

First order of business was to become a real hermit, by secreting away an entire mountain range and forest, and relocating it from Kaminari no Kuni to Mori no Kuni, a simple task for someone like him. The next phase was keeping an eye on the world, which was made easy by creating several scrying pools, and objects that allowed him to see everything and anything he wanted to see or view, but with a rather limited range per item. One such item would one day come into the possession of the Sandaime Hokage for some reason which Ryoku was still unsure of.

He knew that sometime in the coming years Takeshi would split up the chakra of the Juubi into nine parts, he also knew that Takeshi would chose the younger of his two sons to lead, which would cause the cycle of hatred to continue, this time between brother. It wasn't like there was anything that Ryoku could actually do to prevent that as it would be his student's decision, and something which he knew that the gods would not like if he interfered.

He also knew that something would happen in order for most samurai to choose to live in Tetsu no Kuni, and for the country itself to become neutral to the rest of the ninja run world. He didn't care to know the reason, but knew that he would learn of it eventually, just as he knew that Kimura would have a lot of wives and a lot of concubines, and a lot of sons, but only one daughter. He didn't know how he knew that, but that was what he knew.

While he knew that his students were all mortal, he also knew that their blood would someday meet up once again, he also had a vague feeling that those books he read would play a bigger part in his future life.

For now all he needed to do was wait for the hidden villages to grow and become what they were in the time of the comics, become what they were meant to become. Hidden villages of more than one clan, a hidden village per country, and hopefully he would be able to, by that time, figure out how to become Mizukage.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

Note 2: Inappropriate/Useless/Spam reviews will earn the reviewer blocked status, check profile for list of blocked users.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter eighteen**_

_*_

_*_

It had been several years since all his students had passed on to the next great adventure. Wars hadn't really started up again, but the lands were forming borders slowly and steadily. There were still hidden villages scattered across the continent, most of which were made up of one clan each only, there were very few that actually considered allying themselves with other clans.

As time passed by, a few more people were able to find the secret hideaways of the summon clans, some were able to pass their tests and were allowed tosign the contracts to call upon the summons, while others were not. To fail the test during these times was akin to a death sentence, as the summons did not want their secrets to be spread, nor the locations of their homes to become common knowledge. Only those that worked hard enough were able to gain the chance of becoming summoners, and some eventually became sages.

Some summon clans revoked their contracts from some of their summons, due to abuse of contract, or turning away from the ideals and morals followed by the summon clan. Two famous clans voided their contracts with two human clans. The toads and the wolves revoked nulled their contracts with what had become the Senju and the Uchiha clans, the direct lines of the Rikudou Sennin. Some summons refused to battle one another, while some would gladly welcome such battles. But the wolves and the toads were at peace with one another, they were allies, and they did not approve of their summoners using them to fight each other. This was another reason for the hate of the two clans to grow and fester within one another.

Ryoku, while living a quiet life in his hidden mountain home, did receive some visitors every now and then, ranging from summons requesting their contracts, to actual people that simply stumbled upon his hidden hideaway. For some reason or another, most of the people that found his home were children, not any older than five, and most of them were lost or abandoned children, orphans the lot as Ryoku had come to find out from searching for their parents.

While he didn't teach the children how to fight per se, he did teach them some trade skill of some sort. He taught leather making to one child, pottery to another, sewing to another, and so on and so forth. No two children at any given life time were taught the same thing. Each of the students were special in their own rights. One of his students was actually taught the art of puppetry.

The child that learned puppetry later came to be known as the Father of Kugutsu no Jutsu, and the most powerful and talented one of them all, and he would be hailed as such for many years, until perhaps the debut of Akasuna no Sasori.

While the student was great, the teacher was even greater. While the student had managed to make puppets appear like real live people. Ryoku was able to create some puppets to not only appear like living people, but also move about and act like people, they were even allowed to speak. Very many complex seals were employed to reach such an effect. It was the closest to creating human life as Ryoku could get, and that the First Seed would allow.

These puppets were what made up the population of the hidden village that Ryoku had created for himself, and these orphans that managed to stumble upon his home in the mountains of Mori no Kuni. He seemed to like teaching a lot, and really had a knack for it after so many years of practice.

The puppets were present and were allowed to continue to exist so that the children would continue to get some experience with dealing with all sorts of people. Ryoku had a puppet, which was more like a golem, for every conceivable kind of person, from happy people to sad people, from healers to murderers even, not that anyone was ever killed by that puppet. Some puppets even acted like lost travelers or traveling merchants, just to keep the children thinking that the hidden hideaway was still part of the rest of the world.

But when the children left, which was about when they were fifteen, they were unable to return to the place unless expressly having been told by Ryoku to return sometime in the future, before that time, they would not be able to find the place again, which is how Ryoku's home was able to enter into legend, then myth, but was never forgotten.

While children learned skills and trades, those few adults that were somehow able to stumble upon the place sought out items or lessons. The requirement for an adult to find the place was that they were either seeking a purpose, or that they were seeking a method to accomplish a seemingly impossible task and had already run out of options or possible options with their available skill set.

One such man stumbled upon the hidden home when he needed a way to defend his master from those that would do him harm. The man was a soldier that had been assigned the task of being his master's champion in some life or death competition. He had strength and speed, but he didn't know of any fighting style that would be able to help him as no one had taught him how to properly fight and no one wanted to teach him either.

"Who might you be?" Ryoku asked the new arrival to his little spot of paradise.

"Chisoku Mamoru," the man answered, "W-where am I?"

"You are...well..there really isn't a name for this place," Ryoku said, "Tell, me, why were you wandering around the forest for?"

"There is a fighting competition coming up, and I was entered," Mamoru said, "But I don't know how to fight, I'm quick on my feet, and can split the trunk of a tree, but I don't know any forms and the like. Plus my master's life is on the line."

"If you are willing to learn, I guess I can teach you," Ryoku said, "But if you are unwilling to spend years here, I may have a scroll or two that you may take with you, for yourself to study."

"Uh..you'd do that for a complete stranger?" Mamoru asked.

"Normally, I wouldn't, but I can see that you need some help," Ryoku said, "Follow me please."

Ryoku led Mamoru to his house which was located a little ways away from the village he had built for his puppets to move about in. He led Mamoru into the house and searched his shelves of scrolls for the scroll that he believed the man needed for his fight.

While Ryoku was busy looking for the scroll or scroll,s Mamoru busied himself with looking at the map on the ceiling of the house. The map was no longer the map of the world, but just as map of the continent as it was presently. There were a few moving dots on the map, each dot with a corresponding name. It seemed to be tracking the movements of many individuals, and if not people their blood.

"Aha, found it!" Ryoku exclaimed after finding the scroll he had been searching for, he handed it to the man, "You can stay at the village inn, free of charge until you are ready to leave. The style in that scroll is called Strong Fist Style. I hope that it will be use to you."

It was a great help to the man, who decided to keep the scroll and teach it to those that had the patience to learn the style, which were very few. It had helped him defeat all his opponenets in the tournament and make sure that his master lived a long and full life.

All of Ryoku's students seemed to be made for greatness, as each and every one of them eventually became known as a legend or something similar.

He kept track of each of them and their direct descendants just in case a need in the future arose, or in case he believed that they needed his help.

The people that he usually helped were non military people, or non political people. His last ninja pupil had been the ninja of the Ryuuko clan, and he had no plans of taking on another ninja student for a little while longer.

There was just something about teaching a ninja that didn't feel right, and so, he decided to wait for the perfect time to arrive for him to step back into the warrior training business.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter nineteen**_

_*_

_*_

"Just my luck..." Ryoku mumbled.

It was the first time in several years that he had decided to leave his mountain home to how much the world had really changed. There was a big difference between experiencing the world directly, and experiencing the world indirectly. Indirectly was how Ryoku had been keeping in touch with the movements of the world. His map of the continent did not only show the continent as it was or where the direct descendants of his students were, but it also listed information on the different important events in the world. It was a difficult and rather complex piece of magic.

Ryoku had decided that since there was a lot of movements going on in the world, specifically fights over territory, as well as the right to exist, Ryoku decided to see for himself the state of the continent. See for himself if the unification of the clans would be underway soon. It was never really stated how the clans or even why the clans had decided to band together and form those hidden villages in the first place.

After leaving the protections of his wards, Ryoku had immediately teleported himself to a random location, letting his magic guide him, believing that since he did not really have an agenda, he would allow his magic to lead him to the path that he was to tread.

It just so happened that his magic landed him in the middle of a battlefield, one fought between two opposing armies, one seemed to be the army of Hi no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni, Fire and Lightning. Two forces of destruction doing battle, for the petty reason of territory. The more the land, the more power is what the leaders of the two nations believed, or what any of the leaders of the nations believed, save for Tetsu no Kuni. As Tetsu was ruled by the Ryuuko clan, and the teachings of Ryoku himself.

The first thing he did after mumbling those few words was jump out of the way of a sword slash, he then spun around, drew his daggers, and changed from whatever he was wearing to his avatar garb.

"I dislike wars in general, they are such troublesome things," Ryoku whispered for any that would listen to his words to hear, "Countless lost lives, much suffering and pain, much destruction. Such a wasteful existence."

No one heard his words, which suited him just fine, as even though he detested war, he loved a good fight, and if by fighting he would be able to save some lives, he would gladly take up his blades and sever the bonds of hatred from the hearts of men.

The soldier that had tried to cut him in half out of surprise rushed him. Seeing the blade instantly meant that Ryoku was an enemy, one to be defeated, taken out, killed. Something which he should not have been broadcasting too loudly, as even his next movements were readable by Ryoku.

With direct eye contact, Ryoku was able to enter the man's mind and temporarily shut it down, rendering the soldier unconscious. It was time for the party to begin, and Ryoku was going to enjoy it.

While his natural and enhanced maximum speed was supreme, his dagger tearing holes within space and time were unimaginable. Such actions allowed him to slip in and out of active time, appearing and reapparing behind the soldiers in quick succession. Knocking them unconscious, and going so far as to take them to their camps. Soldiers, officers, all. Within the span of less than a single hour, Ryoku was the only man visible in the middle of the battlefield, one which was littered with the weapons and armors of men.

"W-who the hell was that?" the general of the Fire army asked out loud.

"I-Impossible..." was the frightened whisper that escaped one of his aides.

"What is?" the general asked, "Do you know him?"

"H-He should be d-dead...i-it h-has to be a g-ghost..." the aide said shakily.

"Who is that man?" the general demanded, sure that his aide knew.

"Taijutsu no Tatsujin," the aide whispered.

"Never heard of such a man," the general said, then asked, "Is he a ninja? Of what clan? Which clan?

"Not a ninja..." the aide said, wracking his memory of the tales of such a man, "At the time of the founding of Tetsu no Kuni, the oldest of all the lands, there was a man unrivaled in unarmed and armed combat. He was known as the ultimate master of the body, unsurpassed even by the legendary Rikudou Sennin whom the ninja world worship or think of as being akin to a god."

"But that was hundreds if not a few thousands of years ago!" the general exclaimed, "How can such a man still exist, still live?"

"S-Some accounts...well..more like historical rumors stated that not only was he the Father of Taijutsu just as the Rikudou Sennin is the Father of Ninjutsu, but also that he is a dragon, other accounts claim him to be a phoenix, others a giant serpent, others still saw him as a tiger, there is even one account stating that he was a turtle," the aide recounted his lessons in history.

"T-Then...he is...a...." the general put two and two together, and didn't like what he realized was a possibility, something which was only half right, as an avatar or champion of a god was only the equivalent of a demigod, "Retreat! Back to the border!"

The implications of divine intervention, no matter how small it may have been, was enough to convince the general that no matter the orders of his lord, there was no point when something far more powerful than even his lord was in the way. The soldiers quickly went to work, and forced a full retreat, not worrying about their enemy gaining the land. But luckily for the lords of the two lands which Kaminari and Hi no Kuni were fighting over, they had both retreated to the borders of their own countries. Both generals having been given the same information from their aides, it also helped that Ryoku was able to access their minds and influence their thoughts slightly.

When the two armies were finally away from the battlefield, he allowed his clothes to shift to his black body suit, and fainted on the spot. He had expended a lot of magic to perform the way he did. Multiple rips in space and time caused a lot more magic to be used, and at such a scale was more magic than he had used battling the Juubi. He also had to deal with some power limiters he had placed on his body, and a number of other things that made sure that he would keep all of the living combatants as part of the living. It was a really magically tiring experience, one which he hoped he would not have to have to experience so soon, lest he fall into a coma, one which would not be good for his health and continued existence at all.

A few minutes after falling to blissful unconsciousness, a group of travelling ninja arrived at the scene of the battle. They gathered the weapons and armor that had been left strewn about the place, and in doing so chanced upon Ryoku's body, laying right there in the middle of the whole battlefield.

"What in the world?" the person that found him couldn't help but saying, as his was the only body left in the place.

"What have you found Tada?" another member of the group asked as he approached his clansman.

"A body...unscathed, unharmed, still alive...but unconscious..." Tada said, "Do we leave it here?"

"Hmm...as he is the only one, we best bring him along, we could use whatever information he can provide us about the battle that took place here," the other said.

#

He woke up to unfamiliar surroundings, as well as finding that he could not move from his position as he was held in place by a lot of ropes, as well as a few seals that were supposedly meant to bind his chakra, had he any. But luckily he didn't have any, and the ropes were nothing he couldn't get out of. It was the numerous pointy objects that were pointed at him that were the problem, each one was tied to a rope. This meant that should he break free, he would have to deal with all the pain brought about by all those lovely pointed and depressingly sharp objects.

Before he could ponder further on his situation he heard the opening of a door and someone entering the room he was being held in.

"Oh, great, you're awake," the person said, and when the person came into view, the person turned out to be a teenage girl, "I'm Kuro Shiren, and I have been given the task of interrogating you about that place we found you at."

"..." Ryoku seriously did not know how to respond to that.

"Not talking I see," she said, "Well...I guess that's normal since I haven't asked you anything yet...so...what happened there? Yours was the only body we could find in the whole place, but the weapons and armor were all so lovely, some of them are ready to be used against you should you try to escape your bonds."

"I'm sure you already know about the battle which took place there, else your clan would not have been there to scavenge for the remains of the fight," Ryoku said monotonously, "My role in the battle was simple. I got both sides to retreat, but used up too much energy doing so."

"T-that's it? B-but how?" she asked, the monotony of his voice kind of freaked her out.

"Let's just say that...hmm...I'm really fast when I want to be," Ryoku said, "Also...these ropes, seals, and those weapons are useless."

"W-what do you mean?" she asked, seeing a smile appear on his exposed face.

"I mean..if I wanted to I could have left as soon as I woke up," Ryoku said, remembering that he could simply teleport out of harm's way, or shift his being, get himself in and out of time for a little while.

"So...why don't you...you know...get loose?" she asked him after a moment of silence.

"Simple," Ryoku said, "I'm gathering information on the Kuro clan of course."

"What!? But you're just laying there, how can you gather such information?" she asked him.

"By looking into your eyes," Ryoku said, which was what he did when their eyes met, "They are after all the windows to the soul."

"W-what...then.." she said hesitantly.

"I have accessed all information about the Kuro clan," Ryoku said, then did one of the things he was capable of doing. He became semi-transparent, which is another way of saying that he is in and out of time, something like a ghost but not.

He stood up and stretched cause apparently he had been in a temporary coman for about the span of a week.

"So you are gearing up for war with another weapon-user clan," Ryoku stated, "One with a bloodline limit...interesting."

"What is?" she asked, shocked that he was standing there in front of her.

"So the bloodlines have finally stopped mutating, they have finally reached the pinaccle of their evolution," Ryoku said, "The clans have finally been established...the clans wars have begun."

"Clan wars? What are you talking about?" she asked him.

"All over the continent, the clans will begin fighting with their rivals, to the point that there will not be a clan that is not at war with another one," Ryoku said, "Clans will find allies and enemies alike, and will betray each other for a better position in the world."

"What you're saying is ridiculous," Shiren said, "We're going to war with the Hagane clan because they ambushed some of our non-combatants, we're out for revenge."

"Do you people even know how to use the weapons you have collected?" Ryoku said, "Based on the information I have gleamed from you, there is not one of you that can match these Hagane."

"What are you talking about? We know how to use 'em," she insisted, finally getting over the shock of seeing someone that was like a ghost.

"Your clan's fighting style revolves around the use of the body as a weapon, it revolves around speed and strength," Ryoku said, "A reinvented and improved version of the Strong Fist Style, not something that can be used in conjuction with slicing weapons at all, which is what you have a plenty."

"Wha..?"

"One of your ancestors stole katas from a member of the Chisoku clan by memorizing the motions, but not actually learning everything that needs to be known," Ryoku said, "By not knowing all that there was to be known, your ancestor had to reinvent the style a little bit. Instead of short blunt weapons, he evolved it to where staves and staffs could be used, and not swords. But not that many people use staves or staffs."

"You really stole the information from my mind..." she said.

"Yes," Ryoku said, "I will not help you in the battles ahead. But I will tell you this, staffs are easy to make, and with some seals easy to turn to steel. With that your clan may have a chance at surviving."

"What do you....mean..?" she asked, only to notice too late that Ryoku was gone.

While not exactly his duty, but he believed that they deserved the chance of surviving after helping him a little by not leaving him in the middle of that battlefield, or not killing him right then and there, not that he would have stayed dead as he had some precautions and countermeasures in place in case something like that were to happen.

He teleported after leaving that last minute advice, and arrived near a very familiar mountain range, within the heart of Kaminari no Kuni.


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter twenty**_

_*_

_*_

"Time to pay those bastards a visit," Ryoku mumbled as he spied a mountain village from the sky above, as he was in his phoenix form.

Kaminari no Kuni, home of many a ninja clan, the samurai clans were very few in most other parts of the continent and the majority of them were confined or something within Tetsu no Kuni. The clan of which Ryoku spoke of was one of the, if not the first, clan to attack him after Takeshi left his side to pursue halting the curse that plagued the world.

They who had attacked him en masse where some members of the clan had perished when they went after him with the intent to kill. He had killed them all, collected their blood and buried their bodies. He was now planning on visiting this particular clan again, the clan of the white eyes.

Their eyes had evolved through their hardwork and dedication in modifying and enhancing their eyes to the point that they could see through objects, as well as all around them, and even see the chakra flowing in the body as they believed that was how the Taijutsu no Tatsujin was able to beat them, by enhancing his body with chakra.

Their fighting style had also changed from the body and bone breaker that it was to one that numbed muscles, burst inner organs and or arteries, and stopped the flow of chakra. They were now calling themselves...

The Hyuuga clan.

They had evolved their eyes to the point that it could go no further without any external aid. Something which Ryuko was going to try and provide. He, after all, didn't hate or dislike them, but he believed that stagnation was not something to be desired.

But first he needed to see at what level their skills were at.

So he sent his body into a dive, morphing back into his human form and wearing a chameleon like body suit, one that would automatically blend him into the surroundings but better than any chameleon as the shift was flawless.

His landing was like that of a cat's, silent and on all fours. Not one of the residents of the village noticed his arrival, as not one of them believed that it was necessary to activate their eyes within the village walls as no one would be able to get past their sentries. But Ryoku did, utilizing people's inability to think of a threat coming from above.

He crept through the village searching for the elders of the clan, as he wanted to get the most information out of the lot of them. While their eyes would be unable to see him unless he let them, their all seeing eyes were easy to use to get into their head.

After a few minutes of searching, he found the elders convening at a meeting in a house somewhere in the outskirts of the village, why not in the middle of the village, he didn't know and couldn't care to guess, but he found them. So he decided to listen in on their meeting before ambushing one of them to gleam information from their mind.

"...again. Its the third time this month," one of the elders said.

"The hunts are more frequent.." another complained.

"What can we do? We're no good at seals," yet another said, "Ever since it was revealed that we aren't as blind as we claim to be, even since it was found out that we aren't like bats..they've hunted us for our eyes."

"Yes...we've been lucky enough so far that everyone that's been ambushed has managed to escape."

"The sentries report that there have been sightings of intruders."

"They're closing in on finding the village."

"There must be something we could do," one elder said, "If only our ancestors weren't so obsessed with defeating that one taijutsu master, we wouldn't be in this mess. They concentrated on perfection, and we gained eyes that many other clans want."

Ryuko had heard enough, and so crept into the room, and morphed himself into his tiger form, with a coat of white, with those lovely black stripes. Both of his eyes taking on ethereal glows, one emerald green, the other gold.

His camoflauge disguise slowly melted away revealing his presence to the assembled elders of the clan. The first thing they noticed were the glowing eyes, followed by everything else.

"T-Tiger..." one of the elders whispered, upon realizing what creature stood within their circle.

"W-what in t-the w-world," the future stoic clan's ancestors stuttered at the sight of him.

"Who are you..?" one of the elders brought up the courage to ask.

"I am Ryoku," he said, "I have heard of your plight and wish to help you."

"Our plight?"

"Your all-seeing-eyes that are coveted by the other clans of Kaminari no Kuni," Ryoku said, "They have no protections..but I can grant you the ability to protect your clan's treasured eyes."

"Why would you offer such, Ryoku-sama?" one elder asked.

"I am partly to blame for your present predicament," Ryoku said, "Had I not beaten your ancestors, they would not have worked so hard to achieve those gifts which are so coveted."

"B-but our ancient foe was a man, not a tiger, Ryoku-sama, a legendary man, but a man nontheless."

"Y-you are a tiger...unless..."

"Unless?" Ryoku asked.

"Unless those legends were true..."

"That the Taijutsu no Tatsujin did battle our ancestors, and fought the Juubi all those years ago..."

"Those legends are history, they are in some ways the truth," Ryoku said, then shifted to his human form, wearing his avatar garb, "I wish to help you."

"But why now? Is it because we no longer feel the need to best you in battle?"

"I had actually originally come to challenge your clan, and see how you have progressed all these years," Ryoku admitted.

"Wait...a moment....how did you find our village?" one elder asked.

"Taijutsu no Tatsujin is merely my most well known title," Ryoku said, "I am also known ss Mori no Yuurei, have you heard that name before?"

"Ghost of the forests...I have heard tales of it from some missions...orphans seeking purpose, and lost seeking knowledge...wander the forests of Mori no Kuni..and find an immortal ghost that guides them...you are that ghost?"

"I am that ghost..though I am more alive than what those tales say," Ryoku said, "Now...would you like my help?"

"We welcome it," the elders agreed, "Anything to protect the clan."

"Great," Ryoku said,clasping his hands.

He brought out the ball of blood that he had collected, the blood of the pure Hyuuga clansmen, those that were without the bloodline, only the potential of gaining one.

"This is the blood of your ancestors," Ryoku said, holding out the ball, "With it I shall draw seals on each and every member of your clan. Each and every member. Then I shall teach you how to activate the protection."

"What will it do?"

"If captured, upon activation of the seals, the body will disintegrate, leaving nothing," Ryoku said, "There are a few watered down versions, but this is the one that will work for the time being, it is the surest way in these trying time."

"But when...we have no more need of it...how will we be able to be rid of it?"

"I will leave some scrolls about the seals I shall place in conjuction with your kekkai genkai, I guess you can reverse engineer it and come up with something for yourseleves," Ryoku said, "Though I do hope that you will not abuse my gift."

"Should our clan ever fall to the pit of corruption, you may do with our clan as you wish," the elders said.

"You might want to put that into writing," Ryoku said, "Preferably in blood, and I shall keep the original while leaving you the copy."

"Understood," the elders asid.

"When can you begin applying the seals?" one elder asked.

"As soon as you can gather up all of your villagers, along with packing up all your belongings," Ryoku said, "Another precaution would be to leave Kaminaru no Kuni, and transferring to Hi no Kuni."

"Hi no Kuni? Why?"

"You will not be hunted there for your eyes, but you will be challenged for your strength," Ryoku said.

*

The seals were painted in blood, and were somehow merged with the blood and bloodline of the clan, every clansman received them through a painless process, but no one was awake during said process. No one needed to know the secrets of such a precise art, it would be more difficult to remove that way, and for traitors to arise.

After all had had seals applied to them, Ryoku proceeded to teach the adults how to activate the protection of their clan's secrets. There were three ways to activate it, overload the chakra circuitry in the eyes, telling if they had suceeded in activating it was easy as an intense pain would build up in the eyes. The second way was via a hand seal and a certain amount of chakra. While the third one was by word activation, more like a sentence, 'I am rescued from the jaws of despair by the paws of Byakko,' was the sentence.

Once done with his helping with their protections, he provided them with the sealing scrolls needed to pack away all of their possessions and their village itself, which was quite a feat, one which the elders thanked him profusely, even going so far as to offering him one of their granddaughters. He declined.

When the clan was about to depart, Ryoku sensed the approach of multiple figures, closing in on the former hidden village fast. Without the sentries in place, the clan didn't have such an advanced warning, and with Ryoku himself focusing at the tasks at hand, had been unable to detect the approaching attackers.

"Hyuuga, flee to Hi no Kuni! Your enemies are closing in on us!" Ryoku shouted, "I'll hold them off while you all escape!"

"What?!"

"How can we hope to escape!"

"There's only one of you!"

"You lead them here!"

"JUST GO!" Ryoku roared as he transformed into his tiger form, and grew in size until he was on par in size with one of the roaming bijuu.

"..." the Hyuuga could not say anything after witnessing him transform into such a large tiger, a white one at that.

"GO!" he roared when they continued to stare at him, he could sense the attackers getting closer and closer, he knew their numbers, and it seemed as if three whole clans had allied together to take the power of the Hyuuga as their own, "Stop for nothing, fight no one, do not attract attention to yourselves, I have cast an illusion on all of you to aid in your escape, so go now. Please."

"We will never forget this," one elder vowed, as he lead the rest of his clan away from their former home, and their former country. None dared to look back.

When the Hyuuga were gone, Ryoku shrunk down in size, and turned invisible himself.

As soon as the attackers entered his range of sight, he attacked with the fury of a raging volcano. He used the Jyuuken to the best of his abilities, and considering who he was, it was the best, as well as the most nearly deadly fight that the three clans had ever encountered. They knew not the number of their attackers, but knew that they were fast, and they believed that their attackers were Hyuuga.

The level of speed, and strength, and mastery of the Jyuuken would later add to the reason as to why the Village Hidden in the Clouds or Kumogakure no Sato, would covet the Hyuuga.

After incapacitating two clan's worth of ninja, Ryoku made his invisibility melt away revealing his form. He appeared as a man shrouded in white flowing robes, with a tear drop over his heart. Both of his eyes were pearly white, and his hair was long and silk like. His face showed no emotion, and not even his eyes betrayed any emotion. He was the epitome of Hyuuga stoicism and pride.

"W-who are you?" one of the attackers asked in fear of the apparition before them.

"I am Byakko," Ryoku said not able to really think of anything else at the time, "Begone from this land, lest I feast on your souls."

"F-feast on our s-souls? B-but you're human!"

"Am I?" Ryoku asked as he slowly morphed into his white tiger form, then stared down at all of them, as he also increased his size back to that of a giant.

The remaining ninja ran for the hills, taking their fallen with them. They too dared not look back at the form of the giant tiger that stared at them hungrily.

When they were far away enough from the tiger, Ryoku morphed back into a human, but released a cloud of chakra smoke to make it look as if he had returned to some other realm, or make it seem like the Hyuuga had a summoning contract, which he knew that they did not.

With nothing else to do in Kaminari no Kuni, Ryoku teleported to some random location and see what he could or should do there.


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter twenty-one**_

_*_

_*_

He ended up in the burning and otherwise scorching desert that made up most of Kaze no Kuni. He remembered when the desert was the most inhospitable of places in all the continent, where spirites good and bad freely roamed waiting for their loved ones or to be forcefully passed on by the duo known as Ryoku and Takeshi. There had also been those dreaded sharks. But since the defeat and sealing of Juubi, those things were but myths from the past. Irrelavant information and stories to tell naughty children.

As he looked out over the sands, he wondered why his magic had landed him there.

'_Perhaps to reminisce.._' he thought, '_Perhaps not.._'

The second thought came to him just as he saw a battle in the distance, one which was not between men, but between a man and a beast, one of nine which roamed the world.

He watched the battle from afar, and watched as it ended with the body of the man being swallowed up by the living raging sandstorm that was a racoon-dog, a tanuki.

He was about to leave the vicinity when he was suddenly pelted by multiple bullets of wind, sending him flying back in pain.

He was unable to right himself before he was pelted by sand shurikens, then by he was flung up into the air by a hand of sand.

In the air a constant streat of cutting winds and glass shards tore into his flesh, making it rain in his blood.

He could feel the complete and utter hatred that the beast had for him, something which could not be felt from the battle it had just had with that one man. This was a hate so powerful that it reminded Ryoku of his battle with that blasted Juubi. Remnants of the beast must have remained in this one ninth of its power and soul.

But there was something else there, the hate of ages past had accumulated in the sand, in the form of blood, and the blood of the victims of this mostrosity. The sand was bloodied, and powered by the hate of the deceased, just as much as it was fueled by the vile chakra of the Juubi, now Ichibi.

One would think that after the passage of several hundred if not several thousand years, such hate would have abated and been replaced by dislike or something else. But no, it remained, it festered, and had grown to such a level that it left Ryoku unprepared for the consequences.

When his body fell to the sand, and he lay there motionless, seemingly lifeless. He had lost a lot of blood to the constant attacks dealt to him by the monster. He didn't even have time to bring out his daggers to counterattack.

"**Hahaha! I have accomplished what my past self was unable to accomplish! The mighty fenikkusu has fallen!"** the Ichibi rejoiced at his accomplishment, as it was true that not even the Juubi in its prime and end days had been able to really harm Ryoku in such an unexpected fashion, **"The consumation of ten thousand corrupted souls! The blood sands! Hahaha! All the desert and my loss has been repaid!"**

The bitter taste of defeat had never been a taste he quite enjoyed or even liked to for that matter. It was utterly humiliating to have a stain on his perfect record, although he had been beaten by those blasted malachi back on Aetas.

The sand quickly surrounded his prone form, he knew he only had a few moments to live, so he entered his soul room where time was relevant and irrelevant.

He needed to heal his body from the inside out as even his organs had been nearly ruined. Constant Vigilance! He had forgotten that lesson, thinking that he was next to invincible and unbeatable. Due to his neglect he was moving closer and closer to death's door.

But now that he was firmly within his soul room, he could act. It appeared that half of the Juubi's unbridled hate for him and his students were contained in the two polar ends of the spectrum when it came to the bijuu. They were mostly found within the Ichibi and the Kyuubi. Which meant that the safest way to render this one tailed threat to humanity was by driving it completely mad. Ryoku could also tell by the taste of the blood in the sands that several of the corrupted souls that the beast had consumed were mad priests, exiled from their temples for their illicit behavior.

Ryoku planned on enhancing that madness, and forcing the thing that planned on finishing the Juubi's job to go mad. The want for blood, death, and destruction, would remain, but the madness would make it kind of difficult for the beast to use its full potential against its enemies ever again.

Forcing such a creature to go mad, was easier said than done, for Ryoku would have to deal with the protections it had in its mind as well as its soul. Luckily he could still conjure up his herd of patronus to gain him access to the already slightly mad mind of the beast.

After gaining access to the mind of the beast, he implanted mental bombs all over the place, to make sure that it shattered. He then stole away some portions of the mind, the ones responsible for truly coherent and rational thought, as those would be needed to completely repair the damaged mind. Its mind's protections were easy to bypass, it was the soul room which had been and still was a problem. But after dealing with the mind, Ryoku slipped out and returned to his body, just as the sand monster exploded with the force of a hundred volcanoes errupting all at once. Its chakra and bloody sand scattering to the four winds and it would remain in such a stated for a few years at least.

It wasn't all that surprising that while he was healing himself, slowly as not to overlook anything, some ninja stumbled upon him. They were members of the Chikamatsu clan, whose founder had learned the art of puppetry from his own father, one of Ryoku's former students.

They had been attracted by the explosion that had taken place, and were surprised to find the seemingly broken and bloody form of Ryoku laying there in the sand surrounded by blood, and laying next to him was a small tanuki made out of sand, that when they approached, it too joined the rest of its body scattering across the desert riding on the four winds.

As he seemed to have been able to defeat what was perceived as unbeatable, they took his back with them to their home. Another hidden village, one where in the future it would be known as Sunagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Sand.

*

Just like the first time he had entered into a coma due to exhaustion, he had once again awoken in a room, tied to the bed with ropes and his chakra, had he any, bound by seals. Around him were puppets instead of weapons, but these puppets were sure to have hidden weapons all over their bodies, as well as poison tipped ones.

While he had not taught the first Chikamatsu how to fight using puppets, he had taught him enough. One son of the man had gone on to spread puppetry as an art form, one for entertainment, while his elder brother had evolved and used the art as an instrument for battle, a combat tool, one which would last as both a simple art form and a battle art for a long long time.

Like the first time, just as Ryoku was contemplating what he was going to do, he heard a door open and heard the voice of a teenaged girl speaking to him, this time not about interrogating, but asking if he was ok. The ropes and seals were there just in case he tried to escape before he was healed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Better than a month ago," Ryoku said, guessing that he had been out for at least a month this time.

"How'd you know you were out that long?" she asked him.

"I guessed, based on the injuries I received before you Chikamatsu found me," Ryoku answered, "How goes your clan's art?"

"Art?" she asked, not knowing what he was talking about, as her clan didn't really refer to their puppetry as an art, just tools.

"Kugutsu no Jutsu," Ryoku said, "The Art of Puppetry."

"Oh...h-how did you know about that? Come to think of it, how did you know that I'm of the Chikamatsu clan?" she asked him.

"I've been keeping track of your clan ever since Kotarou left my home with the art," Ryoku said, "His art seems to have gone a long way since last I taught him."

"A-Are you talking about THE Chikamatsu Kotarou!?" she nearly shouted.

Her near shout was loud enough to get the rest of her household running into the room, all of them a little bit panicked and ready for whatever trouble was in the room.

"What's going on in here?" one male asked the teen as he barreled into the room.

"He claims to have taught THE Chikamatsu Kotarou," she replied, pointing at Ryoku who was sitting on the bed massaging his muscles which had not moved for over a month, all the while pouring magic in those numb places to get the blood circulating properly in them, allowing for more movement.

"Well it is true, I did teach that child the art," Ryoku said as he stood up and stretched, popping some of his joints in the process.

"..." the Chikamatsu clansmen stared at him.

"What? If I could send that demonic entity scattering to the four winds, you didn't really think that some ropes and seal could hold me in place," Ryoku said.

"B-But h-how?" one of the others that entered the room asked after seeing that the ropes were still whole and the seals were still whole as well.

"I am Ryoku, Yuurei no Mori, Taijutsu no Tatsujin, Ryuumusha, Shinobu, Keigo, Byakko," he said introducing himself, "Call me whichever of my names or titles as you wish. But I really am all of those and a little bit more."

"At this point I'll believe anything," the teen said.

"Glad to hear that you've decided to believe me," Ryoku said, "Just so you know, the Ichibi has not been killed."

"What..? But we saw its remains scatter on the wind."

"The Ichibi is in a way immortal," Ryoku said, "You'd have to shatter the beast's very soul to actually kill it, a feat which I am sure you would be hard pressed to even try."

"But if its defeat was only temporary, then that means that it will return to the sands..."

"Yes, but there is a way to more or less defeat it," Ryoku said, "You must contain it, seal it away."

"Seal it away..."

"How would we go about doing that?" the teenage girl asked, "Sure we know a great deal about seals, but to seal something like that...just getting it to stay still would take a lot of man power, such a quantity we as a clan are lacking in."

"I know that," Ryoku said, "Which is why I propose that you lot gather the clans of Kaze no Kuni, you'll need all the help you can get in securing your contnued existences and place in the world."

"But we already have alliances with all the Kaze clans, some of them may be at war with one another, but we are considered as neutral as we with all our battle puppets are a nation's army all our own."

"But mere puppets would not be able to stand against the might of one of the bijuu, even if it is the weakest, and will be as mad as a mad hatter or a march hare when it reforms itself," Ryoku said, "A single hidden village made up of the unified might of the clans of Kaze no Kuni would be something which could help in its sealing as well as make the rest of the ninja world view you as a super power."

"We'll discuss your proposal with the rest of the clan at our next clan meeting," one of the men asked, "By the way, how did you know that we're the head family?"

"As I told your daughter," Ryoku said as he began to fade from view, "I have been keeping track of the movements of the descendants of my students."

He then finally faded away, it was a different method of travel, as his magic made him fade from one place to another.

He reappeared at the spot that he had fallen unconscious on, and noticed blood sand, which was sand that had been drenched in blood and absorbed the blood. By absorbing his own blood, the sand became a part of him in a way.

He collected the sand, and stored it in his mind, he might find some use for it in the future.

He had just planted the notion of starting the very first unified hidden village, he wondered if he could do the same in Mizu no Kuni, and so teleported himself there.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter twenty-two**_

_*_

_*_

It is said that life on land originated from the sea, the first land animal crawled on its belly out of the grimy depths, and gulped in its first breath of air, then returned to the water. But later on, years later, more and more of these belly crawler began exploring the surface world, until the land was overrun, not by plants as it had been at first, but by animals. From one of these animals eveolved man, the missing link still missing.

Like all life, the activation of the human potential for chakra originated from the sea, through the fish that Ryoku had implanted his magic. When consumed by humans it unlocked their potential, and as years wore on, that potential became chakra, and from chakra mutations in the blood formed, mutations in the DNA formed, thus leading to Mizu no Kuni having the continent's most number of bloodline clans.

Literally surrounded on all sides by water, the island nations collectively known as the Water nations, whose biggest nation was aptly named Mizu no Kuni. Being surrounded by so much water meant that the staple food was fish, and since Ryoku had implanted magic into so many fish, their descendents still had this magic in them, it had become part of them. They bred, and the Water nations ate fish, and so the high in magic content fish helped in the bloodline boom in one fifth of the Elemental Continent.

Ryoku after leaving Kaze no Kuni had teleported himself straight away to the Eastern lands of the continent. He really wondered if he could bring together the warring clans, and boy did the water clans love to spill each other's blood. Considering that there were more clans than possibly territories and jobs, they really did have something to fight about.

But unfortunately, like in the previous country, Ryoku found himself within a several meters of another battle, one which was similar to an extent with the previous one that he had been watching. While the last bijuu battle which he had witnessed was between a single man and a monster, this one was between what looked like a clan of shark like people, and the monster, a three tailed tortoise to be exact. For a few moments Ryoku believed them to be winning, but after watching the beast drown half the clan, Ryoku was forced to believe the opposite.

These blue skinned, shark toothed, people were battling the monster in its element, something which Ryoku found a little stupid, only a little, for if they were good enough, they probably could hold the beast back or even beat it for a time, until it would reform, revive, or whatever, unless they managed to seal it away into someone or something, which wasn't likely as Ryoku had it on good authority that the sealing would occur after the village had been formed, at least during the reign of the second water shadow or third water shadow.

He stood on the water, while the clan waded, dived, swan, and generally were half immersed in the water. Each of the members weiled some form of blade, they were heavily armed but not armored in anyway. It seemed that the only protection against the elements that they actually wore were shorts, that was practically about it.

Since they were losing Ryoku decided to help them, but unfortunately for him, they didn't seem to want his help in any shape or form. As soon as he got close enough for them to actually notice his presence they divided their attacking force to take him out, while the other half continued their attack on the monster.

Their attacks were very shark themed or oriented, from water shark bullets, to shark bits, to everything one could think of and relate to sharks. Shark skin armor, and there was even one weapon that did not slice or cut, but shaved, as was something that shark's skin could in a way do.

He was forced to jump, dodge, and duck out of the way of the many water shark themed jutsus and weapons. There was no variation. Since none of them seemed to want any help, Ryoku decided that things going like this would simply end in the loss of life, and he really couldn't have that at this point in time, if he was to save the bloodline clans, as it seemed as if the clans didn't really need some weird reason to fight. They just loved to fight or something to that effect.

Not wanting to actually get tired, Ryoku coated himself in electricity and fried all the humans in the water, but he knew that technically they were all only knocked out. He then created some clones to carry all of the still living clansmen to shore, and guard them, as well as await further instructions. While his clones took care of the men, he would take care of the beast.

Facing the beast he saw something very unique about the beast. It had a split power, split in the sense that although its power should be measured in the number of tails that it possessed, it had two aspects, animal and logic. Its thinking half was one eye, while its animal half was the other. There also seemed to be a split in its personality, the logic held the destructive nature, while the animal held its more docile or peaceful nature. Keeping one eye closed, the animal eye, it made for a formidable foe. Which was why Ryoku pulled out his twin blades and prepared to charge the beast.

He ran at half speed across the waters and tsunamis the beast sent his way, slashing the overgrown waves in half, as well as disrupting its sonic roars by spinning the blades like a fan diffusing the sound or dispersing it around and no longer in a concentrated mass.

Ryoku knew that the beast could easily regrow its limbs, as were all the bijuu, which was why he had no qualms about cutting off the tails as they tried to slam into him. But since he only had two arms, and two blades he was slammed backwards by a few meters by the third tail. But instead of staying down, Ryoku stood up from the water's surface, and returned to running at the beast, blades raised and ready to deal some more damage.

He had to slash his way through a number of water bullets the size of ten big boned men, as well as deflect some wind cutters the beast was somehow able to send his way. Then instead of cutting off the tails of the beast, Ryoku dodged the first two and simply cut off the third one, and the regrown third one, and so on and so forth until he reached the beast's head.

At the last second as he was about to slash through the beast's logic eye, the beast was able to get in one attack, it roared sending Ryoku backwards to repeat the process all over again.

He decided that since the beast seemed to always have something up its sleeve, he needed something as well. So he coated his entire body with electricity, and surrounded himself with an aura of intense fire, the heat was so strong that it caused the water around him to evaporate upon contact. He then coated his blades in wind, sharpening them and making them able to cut through things faster. He would still run only at half normal speed for if he ran too fast he might miss something important, and missing something important may lead to that something biting him in the ass someday and possibly screwing him over royally.

So he ran, cutting and evaporating his way to the logic eye of the beast, his attack finally hit, causing a large injury to appear on the beast, from entirely logical and destructive it turned feral, while it had the docile personality, that didn't mean that it would still harm those around it. Before the injury could be healed, Ryoku made sure that the beast had other things to worry about, like healing other far worse injuries. Ryoku did not let up in his attack, after the eye slash, he jumped and spun in mid air, extinguishing the flames, and he also put away his blades, then he kicked the beast concentrating a very high voltage into his leg as it connected with the beast, and sent it blasting off again, but not as far as those three usually flew, just far enough for the thing to turn into a hermit crab for several years.

Blasting off at the speed of light did not mean that it gave up, in a last ditch effort to maim its foe, the beast roared, but it was in too much pain to make it an attack, therefore it turned into a painfilled screech high enough in pitch to wake the dead. While the dead didn't literally wake, it did wake some members of the sharklike clan from their static enduced state.

The first thing these newly returned to the land of the waking did was try and attack the clones, which resulted them in experiencing one of the greatest shocks of their lives, literally as the clones were not the usual kage bushin, they were rai bushin, otherwise known as lightning clones. Shark plus lightning equals dazed to possibly dead shark, luckily for the people that they weren't pure sharks and were not in water, as that the clones weren't really releasing themselves, just letting out short bursts of electricity.

"Stay down shark boy," one of the clones said, "The boss will be with your lot shortly."

Which was true as Ryoku made his way over to the group and took control of the situation from the clones.

"Why is it that you lot decided to attack me when I was only coming to help you?" Ryoku asked the assembled but still numb shark people.

"Don't you know about the contest?" one of them asked him.

"Contest? I'm sorry to say, but I've been in Kaze no Kuni, so kindly enlighten me on this contest," Ryoku said, sweetly, "If you lie, I will personally turn you into shark's fin soup."

"T-The D-Daimyo announced that anyone that could bring three of the tails of the three tails would be allowed three wishes to be granted for such a heroic deed," one of them said.

"Ah, good thing I cut off three of its tails," Ryoku said, then instructed some of his clones to fetch the tails, and seal them up in scrolls, "I'll be taking the tails to the daimyo then, you can look for the bijuu again if you want."

But before Ryoku could leave, one of the shark men called out.

"W-Wait!"

"What now?" Ryoku asked, seemingly uninterested.

"How is it that you were able to defeat the bijuu where our whole clan could not even contain it?"

"What is your clan?" Ryoku asked.

"Hoshigaki."

"Well Hoshigaki, the reason why I am able to do as I did is because I at one time battled against something with more tails that that tortoise," Ryoku said then proceeded to leave.

"W-Wait!" another called out hoping to stop Ryoku from leaving.

"What now?"

"C-can you teach us to fight at that level?"

"What would I get out of such a deal?" Ryoku asked.

"Our clan will serve yours til eternity," one, the one that the rest seemed to defer to, said.

"Why should I trust you?" Ryoku said, "I could kill you now, you know."

"We are aware of that," the apparent leader said, "Help us grow stronger and we will forever be in your debt. We are swordsmen, the lot of us, though not samurai, we still have honor."

"On your honor you say," Ryoku said, pointing one of his blades at the man, "Swear by your honor then..scratch that, swear by your souls."

"I speak for the clan when I say, should you help us grow in strength, we will serve you for all eternity, so we swear on our honor and our souls, those that do not keep this vow shall be hunted down," the leader swore for the clan.

"Very well," Ryoku said, "Let us shake on it."

"Alright," the leader said, part of him thinking that Ryoku was a fool, as soon as they were strong enough, they would slay him and hunt down the monster and take the place of power as the ones to slay the bijuu. They grasped hands.

"How about repeating that vow of yours?" Ryoku said.

"As the leader of the Hoshigaki clan, I Hoshigaki Hibari do so swear that if the man whose hand I clasp now helps the Hoshigake clan become strong, then the clan will serve him and his for all eternity," the man, Hibari said.

"I accept," Ryoku said, chakra was like magic, therefore... "**So mote it be."**

There was a sudden rush of power that filled the place, felt by all of the Hoshigaki, some foreign, to them, energy had swept through and into them.

"W-What was that?" Hibari asked Ryoku.

"That was the solidification of the vow, should any Hoshigaki fail to fulfil their end of the bargain, they shall lose their soul as well as their honor," Ryoku explained, "On the otherhand, nothing will happen to me as I agreed to nothing save for helping the Hoshigaki grow strong, which just by associating yourselves with me, you have already become strong."

"W-what..but..how can you have such authority as to claim our souls should we not fulfil out end of the deal?"

"Oh, it is not me who will enforce this bargain, but your very chakra, your very soul will enforce it," Ryoku said, "You swore on your souls, therefore, you swore on your very existence, something which I have no control over."

"B-but..how?"

"You wouldn't really understand, just know that should the power that you felt not finish you," Ryoku said, then unleased a fraction of his power, "You shall feel the wrath of the man that trained _**The Gods of the Shinobi world.**_"

Just as the power had appeared, that oppresive aura, it vanished.

"I...we..."

"Clones," Ryoku said, "Feed each member a bijuu blood crystal," then explained, "It will make you stronger, and solidify your affinity to that of water, granting you the ability to become that which you only resemble, furthering your bloodline to a whole new level. But in order to access such a level you will still need massive chakra stores, are you prepared for the nightmare ahead?"

"We desire strength, we are prepared for whatever hell you have for us," Hibari said.

"Clones, have then attempt the Charybdis, do not stop until one of them has reached the center," Ryoku ordered the clones, then returned his attention to the Hoshigaki, "Your training begins now."

After leaving some additional instructions, as well as some wards and other things in the area, as well as tree houses for the clan to sleep in, he left, heading for the capital of Mizu no Kuni, the Land of Water, the largest of the water nations.


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter twenty-three**_

_*_

_*_

It had been a long time since Ryoku had last set foot in the bloody capital of Mizu no Kuni, bloody capital since it was within the heart of the one land that loved to bleed. Either the citizens really loved it or someone really wanted the chaos to continue, whoever that someone or something was, didn't matter all that much to Ryoku, so long as he got what he wanted. Three wishes would be granted to whomsoever it would be that would be able to bring to the Daimyo three tails of the three tailed beast. Ryoku was to be that person. He had already planted the seeds of one hidden village, why not plant another.

Once arriving there, he wasn't immediately permitted to meet with the Daimyo as he needed to first set an appointment with the man, contest or not. Ryoku bet that had he walked into the city carrying the three tails he would have been attacked by those others that wanted those three wishes granted to them. He couldn't have that happening as he might just be the cause for most of the bloodlines in the world to disappear and not some bloodline purge, just him and three bijuu tails swinging around like whips or flails.

While he waited for his turn to have an audience with the Mizu Daimyo he had some of his clones scout around the city, finding out just how many clans were there in there. He was sure that all the clans had at least one respresentative in the capital, and was sure that his clones would be able to find them all. While it was sure to be a long list, it was also sure to be a necessary one. If he was to wish for the foundations of a Hidden Village to be set, all the clans of the Land of Water would have to be invited and accounted for.

If he was to one day be the Yondaime Mizukage, he would have to become familiar with all of the clans, both bloodline and not. There was also the selection of summon clans for a select few clans in the region, the Hoshigaki would already have to have access to the Same/Shark clan. The others would have to be figured out at a later date of if there were any connections already, better.

The capital of the country was built along the Nothern coast of Mizu no Kuni, with open sea to the North and on all the other sides land, or more of a marshish kind of land, with bogs every now and then providing ample defense against any land based attacks. Being open to the sea allowed for water users, Mizu's speciality, to be able to access large quantities of their ammunition at any given time, should an army decide to invade.

When it was finally time for Ryoku to meet with the Daimyo, he was lead to an ante-chamber and not to the throne room of the country's lord, it was a security measure, and Ryoku had to speak via a middleman, and Ryoku was sure that the middleman was telling the lord some lies about him, as well as some insults and claiming that they were words coming from Ryoku. Well, there goes the mystery of who it was that loved causing the shedding of the blood of the innocent and the not so innocent in the land.

It was through the lies that the middleman and all the court advisers that the battles, and mini-wars were allowed to continue to blosson, to thrive. It was a way for them to fill their own cofers to the brim and more. Corruption at its finest, milking the land dry by bathing it in the blood of its people.

Ryoku didn't like it one bit, but before he could do anything about it, he would need to do something about the state of the un-unified state of the land's clans. There was much distrust between the clans for one reason or another, and alliances were rare is there were any at all.

Political marriages were good and all, but only for the duration of a generation or two, and all was forgotten. While it is true that blood is thicker than water, that was not exactly followed when one lived in a country who's colors were ocean blue and blood red. The water was thick with the blood of hundreds from years upon years of fighting. Mizu no Kuni was the most war torn of all the lands.

When Ryoku finally had enough of the lies, as well as noticing that the guards were moving ever closer to his seemingly defenseless form, he decided to speak up and or do something about the way things were done.

"I may not look like much but if you continue lying to your lord, I will show you just how much power I have," Ryoku threatened the middleman, that after doing such made things a little bit worse, as the guards took it as a threat to their lord, and so pounced.

"Had I wanted to harm your lord, I would have leveled the whole city instead of waiting days to be allowed to even speak to him," Ryoku said as he dodged all of the guards' attacks with as much visible boredom as he could muster. They were just that pathetic in comparison to Kimura's own personal guards. Those guards were able to take on a five thousand strong army without fear, and here were twenty guards without and real ability trying to take down the man that had taught those personal guards and their lord. There was a reason why samurai from all over the world would sell their souls to the Shinigami just to get a chance to learn from the kenjutsu masters of Tetsu no Kuni.

"You louts sure are pathetic," Ryoku said as he continued to dodge the guards' attacks, and continued until they fainted from exhaustion in front of the next group of people who had made appointments to speak with the Daimyo, "Had I known that the middleman would be lying to the Daimyo about my claim as well as claiming that I have been insulting him, I would not have bothered to come here."

"What are you talking about sir?" one of the next group of people asked.

"Never you mind," Ryoku said, and began to walk to the exit, every guard in his way moving to the side in fear, "Perhaps..Mizu does not deserve a chance to survive with true strength after all."

"What do you mean by that?" a young man asked curiously.

"I meant that the Clan Wars have just begun," Ryoku said not bothering to turn around, "I had hoped that this land might have wanted a chance to rise up and face the world unified and not scattered like pieces of a giant puzzle."

"Who are you?" the young man asked, "And forgive me for not introducing myself, I am Murasaki Kujira, the son of the Daimyo, I apologize for the lying and scheming advisors, it is just that no one has had the courage to accuse them or catch them before."

"I am Ryoku," Ryoku said, "As for a clan name...I have yet to chose one for myself."

"What business did you originally have with my father?" Kujira asked.

"I had heard of a contest, one whose prize was to be granted three wishes," Ryoku answered, "I have completed the requirements and had come to present the proof of the authenticity of my claim."

"Show me this proof, and as the heir of the Murasaki clan I will see to it that your wishes come true so long as what you speak of is the truth," Kujira said.

"Very well them," Ryoku said, "Let us go to the shore, there is more than enough space for me to show you there. Take however many guards as you would like, I won't take it against you, and will meet you there."

The walk to the shore of the sea was a quick one as every hundred steps of a normal person Ryoku took a hundred more. Moving faster than time itself was a wondeful thing, though a little bit excessive sometimes. Once he arrived there, he summoned the three severed tails, and waited for the young heir to arrive to verify his claim. Ryoku had decided to sit atop the head of one of his students while he waited, the Boss of the Kujira/Whale summon clan a partial reason for Murasaki Kujira being named such, as his mother's favorite animal were whales.

When the prince arrived, he could immediately tell that it was not just some illusion as there was no other explanation for an entire summon clan to be there keeping the tails from floating away on the waves of the sea. As well as no reason he could think of for Ryoku to be where he was seated, he even brought some ninja with him to check if it was an illusion or not. It was no illusion but the real deal, before him were the three tails of the three tailed bijuu.

"What do you want Ryoku-sama!" Kujira shouted from the ground as he didn't think that Ryoku could hear him if he spoke with his inside voice.

"Ryoku-sama? I haven't heard you being called that in a long time, sensei," the Kujira boss said, for all to hear.

"Shush," Ryoku said, "Go home, but take the tails with you, I'm sure the Same clan would love to have some of them."

Once Ryoku was finally on the ground, from falling from the sudden disappearance of the summons and the summon he was sitting on, he faced the young future Daimyo to answer the question.

"To answer your question, I would like to request that you allow me to found a hidden village here in Mizu no Kuni, one to rival or place Mizu on equal footing with the other Great Nations of the Elemental Continent," Ryoku said.

"What? I don't understand, there are already hidden villages around the land," Kujira said, "And why did that Boss summon call you sensei?"

"Tell me, have you ever heard of Taijutsu no Tatsujin?" Ryoku asked.

"Yes, I have, but that man has been dead for a long time now, he is a myth, a legend, one who is said to have fought alongside the Gods of the Shinobi World against the legendary Juubi," Kujira said, "What does that legend have to do with you and why you were called sensei?"

"I am Taijutsu no Tatsujin," Ryoku claimed, which was the truth.

"Impossible, no man can live that long, unless you are actually claiming to be his successor," Kujira said, "Which I have a feeling you are not."

"I am not claiming to be my own successor, I am Taijutsu no Tatsujin," Ryoku said, "I also have a few other titles, but my most recent one would have to be Mori no Yuurei."

"I will grant your request for permission from the Daimyo to found this village which you spoke of," Kujira said, "But I still refuse to believe your claims. Do you have any proof of your claim?"

"Have a summoner summon the boss of his or her contract, the Boss summons will back up my claims," Ryoku said confidently, he had trained all of the first generation after all, and all summons were connected to him in some strange way which made them recognize him no matter what he looked like or what era it was or where he was.

"Mejin, summon your boss summon," Kujira ordered the ninja beside him.

"As you command, Murasaki-sama," Mejin of the Ootori clan said, and went through the hand seals for the Kuchiyose no Jutsu and slammed his blood smeared hand on the ground beneath him, summoning the boss of his summons.

"What do you want Mejin?" the boss of the Kawauso/Otter clan asked his summoner.

"Meizu, there is a man here that claims to be your sensei, I summoned you to verify his claim should it be true," Mejin said.

"Ryoku-sensei is out in the open?" Kawauso Meizu asked, and looked around for his grandfather's sensei.

"Down here!" Ryoku said sitting on the sand.

"Gyaah!" the giant otter shouted and jumped back in surprise before shrinking in size to kowtow in front of Ryuko to show his deep respect for the man, "I apologize sensei for not recognizing you, I came prepared for either an initiation or for a battle. Please forgive me."

"No apologies necessary young one," Ryoku said, "You have done me no wrong. And get up off the ground, and return to your normal size, it is unbecoming of a boss summon to do as you did now without my requesting you to, and in front of your summoner no less. You may apologize for that now."

"My sincerest and deepest apologies sensei," Meizu said and straightened up back to his full height.

"Incredible...a living legend..." Kujira said in awe, finally believing Ryoku's words, "What of your other two requests?"

"Meizu! From your lessons in the past, what are my other two requests? Or what should they be?" Ryoku asked.

"I..ah..don't think that it is my place to say..sensei..hehe...uh.." Meizu said a little embarassed as saying it would sound really weird coming from such a creature.

"Whatever," Ryoku said waving off the summon.

"Maybe you should go home Meizu-sama," Mejin said, and Meizu did leave, but not before bowing to Ryoku.

"About those other two requests?" Kujira asked.

"The my second request is that I want the daughter of your grandson," Ryoku said.

"But I don't have a grandson, much less a son," Kujira said, "How can I promise something or someone that still does not and possibly will not even exist?"

"Just grant me that wish, put it into writing, and we can move onto the next request, the next wish," Ryoku said, "Whether you do have a great granddaughter or not will be left to chance."

"Alright, I'll grant you that," Kujira said, "The third and last one?"

"I really only wanted that last one...but..hmm..." Ryoku took several minutes thinking about it, "Aha! While I may be the founder of Kirigakure no Sato, I will not be the Shodaime Mizukage, I request to become the Yondaime!"

"That is probably the most insane request I've ever heard. How are you so sure that you will live that long?" Kujira asked, "I will grant you that, but how are you so sure?"

"I'm positive that I will live that long, and even longer!" Ryoku declared, "I have not looked my age since I before I first taught Takeshi."

"Takeshi? Who's that?" Mejin asked.

"And you call yourself a shinobi, you do not know my most famous student? How..disappointing," Ryoku said, "How can you not know the Rikudou Sennin?"

"His name was Takeshi?" Mejin asked incredulously, having thought that his name must have been something more uncommon than that, it was quite surprising.

"I gave him that name," Ryoku said, "He's original name was not well suited for one such as he."

"Well..if that will be all..do you need any help with the actual founding of your hidden village?" Kujira asked.

"It shall be called Kirigakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Mists, spread the word to the shinobi clans of Mizu no Kuni, that there is a village for them, one that will make them a unified military power not to be trifled with," Ryoku said, his clothes changing to that of Ryuumusha Ryoku, "Have them seek me out and the village I shall create with the aid of titans!"

"I shall do that..Kiri will of course still be under the jurisdiction of the Murasaki clan," Kujira said.

"The Mizukage, which will be what the Kage will be called, will answer only to the Daimyo," Ryoku said.

"Alright, and where will Kiri be located?" Kujira asked.

"You'll find out once the clans find it," Ryoku said.

"How will the Mizukage be chosen?" Mejin asked.

"By election, the shinobi and non-combat citizens of the hidden village will be the one to elect the first kage, the succeeding ones will be chosen by the kage in power, save for my reserved seat," Ryoku said, "If there is nothing else, I would like to begin construction of Kiri."

"When will I see you again?" Kujira asked curious.

"Probably before the Kage is actually elected," Ryoku said.

"What makes you say that?" Kujira asked.

"The Clan Wars have begun, one which will encompass the continent," Ryoku said, "The original flow of events was that the clans would form alliances which would form even greater alliances, until the alliances formed the hidden villages all over the shinobi world, this way things are sped, up and hopefully the shinobi can work together, but it will take a strong leader to do that, I hope that one will be found."

"Why don't you just choose one?" Mejin asked.

"I'd rather the people decide who they want to lead them, rather than a legend such as I," Ryoku said, "My days of training legends are more or less over, it is time for the legends to make themselves."

"Then I'll strive to become that first kage," Mejin said.

"What made you say that?" Kujira asked Mejin, who he had simply grabbed a hold of, along with several other shinobi of different clans. None of whom had actually dared to speak up during the whole event.

"You?" Ryoku said, "Keep dreaming, and maybe one day, your dream may come true, but know that I wont be voting for you!"

He didn't allow anyone else to say anything more and rose into the sky his human form falling away to reveal his dragon form. He flew in the direction of a mountain range which he knew from being there in the past had hot springs, not enough to actually be known for its hot springs, but was known for the number of people that had actually been lost in the mists surrounding the place.

Once he touched the ground again, he summoned most of the water based summon clans, the entire clans. And set them to work on the creation of the village, from the walls, to the main structures of the village. He had them build as many buildings and other places to accomodate and make sure that the clans would be able to live comfortably. He had meditated to get an estimate at the number of people that would one day fill the space he had chosen for the hidden village, and added a few more things to it to make it bigger. He then used the powers granted to him by the First Seed to make building things faster, as well as growing the plants and animals that would be used for food, all of which had a heavy dose of chakra for future generations to have more of the stuff, for there to be a greater potential in the future generations of the shinobi nation.

When all the structures and basic defenses were finally and firmly in place, Ryoku dismissed the summons after congratualting them on a job well done. Praise which they all cheered at receiving. With them gone, Ryoku decided to add a few more protections, in terms of wards, seals, and a number of other things. What he focused the most on was the mist. For five miles in all directions around the village the mist was a permanent fixture, one which would only disappear for four random hours each day, not necessarily consecutive hours either. While it was located by a mountain range, a mountain actually protecting it on one side, there were still large lakes, and a few rivers. Of all the hidden villages, it would probably be one of the few acutally hidden ones, hidden by what its name actually implied that it was hidden in or among.

Just as was the original plan, had Ryoku not arrived in the world, clans formed alliances with one another against other clans, and those alliances formed even larger alliances. But by that time they had all heard of this hidden village, one where all of them could converge and possibly find peace, of the things that all warriors wanted no matter what.

So instead of continuing to wage war amongst themselves, they all traveled in search of the hidden village. It took two full years before the first clan to arrive. The Hoshigaki clan was the first official arrival, and it was only due to them training to such a level that they could take on five clans at the same time. Ryoku had truly trained them into becoming a clan with a great potential of producing legends, but after two years they only wanted to become guards for some reason. They were swordsmen, and had actually encountered a platoon of Tetsu samurai who had taught them some philosophy about their now speciality of kenjutsu.

After their arrival, Ryoku had them man the walls, and be on the lookout for new arrivals, and alert him as soon as they entered the mists. The walls were the last line of defense of the village proper, the mists being the first visible one that anyone would encounter.

It then took another two months of waiting for the first alliance to arrive, then it became weeks before the rest started arriving. It was a good thing that the Hoshigaki clan had suddently decided to become the keepers of the peace, else there would have been a lot of fighting within and around the village with such a gathering of shinobi. They served as guides to the new arrivals, it was also a good thing that Ryoku had prepared compounds for most of the clans, arranged and found away from rivals, but near allies. Everything in the village had a strategic and or posibly a political purpose.

Each new arrival couldn't believe what they had found, they had each thought that it would be some regular looking thing, or something still under construction, not a fully constructed and completed hidden village. Complete houses and defenses, as well as training grounds, and other amenities.

"What are you doing now?" Hoshigaki Hibari asked Ryoku who was messing around with oysters and clams.

"Trying to figure out a way to make a hat," Ryoku said as he continued to play with the shell fish.

"Well, can you stop?" Hibari asked.

"Why?"

"Shouldn't you already know?"

"Just tell me already," Ryoku said.

"The clan heads have gathered and want to know about the business with the election of a kage," Hibari said, "They are aware that you have already reserved the Yondaime spot, but they want your input on the choosing of the Shodaime spot."

"Alright," Ryoku said, "I'm coming, lead the way Hibari."

The Kage Tower, the main administration building in the whole hidden village was situated near one of the lakes found within the village, it was there that the clan heads had convened to speak about electing the kage, the leader of the village. There was a total of one hundred two clans, twenty-seven of them were considered as major clans as somewhere in the past those twenty-seven has married into the daimyo's family. The other clans were the minor ones, the smaller ones, as well as the ones that had just started out. There was no such thing as a civilian clan just yet as those would come at a far off date in the future still.

A hidden village was the ultimate alliance that clans could ever hope for, and the one who became the head of the thing, the one to become kage would allow his clan to rise up above the rest. While the clans were tired of the wars, and the struggle to simply survive, they all still wanted power.

"Finally!" one clan head exclaimed when he spotted Ryoku and Hibari walked into the door of the conference room within the tower.

"Hibari only found me a few minutes ago," Ryoku said, "I was trying to figure out how to make a hat. So what do you all need me for?"

"We need your input regarding the selection of the Shodaime Mizukage, you are the founder of this village after all," one clan head said.

"As clan heads, you were at one point in time merely clan members yourselves," Ryoku said, "So tell me, back when you were still heirs, what did you honestly believe were the qualities of a good leader?"

"To be heard, one must first know how to listen," Hibari decided to start as he was the head of the Hoshigaki clan, one of the twenty-seven, "To be followed, one must be trusted."

"A leader must know that what is truly important is not the self, rather it is the well being of those that look up to him," Ootori Gouzu said, "The good of the many before the good of the one."

"To lead, one must be disciplined," Kawa Aoi said, "He must be able to separate personal matters from business."

"I believe that he must be a critical thinker," Momochi Hajime said, "Able to analyze situation and make logical decisions."

"He must know when to fight and when to flee!" Hayashi Hisoka shouted from the back of the room.

"Just like your clan always does on the battlefield!" Asano Mizuki shouted from the middle of the group.

"A leader must know when and when not to keep silent," Ookonaka Saito said irritably.

"Yes, yes, qualities all know and look for," Ryoku said, "But are there any more? I ask you, what would a child think a leader to be?"

"Someone strong," Koori Keiji said from the front of the room, "Powerful. Wise. Brave, along with an innumerable number of other traits."

"Is that what you think..now..or when you were a child?" Hibari questioned.

"My son told me that after I told him when I was going this morning, and asked him what he thought a leader was," Keiji answered, "Of course my daughter told me more."

"But how do we select candidates for the position of Kage for that matter? Genin, Chunin, and even Jounin, are simply decisions to make, the balance of the mind, body, spirit, and experience are the factors...but what makes a Kage?" Karasu Momo asked.

"All qualities that make a good leader a hero possesses," Ryoku said, after a few more voiced their opinions.

"A hero? But each clan has one of those!" a clan head voiced the opinion of many.

"That is true..but the one I speak of is the one that many would consider as such," Ryoku said, "One that stands out among the many, one that is the embodiment of the entire village. A symbol of strength. The water shadow, the one man that embodies all that is the Village Hidden in the Mist."

"Why not a test?" Hibari said, "A tournament between the champions of the clans."

"That wouldn't do, we'd only find out who was the strongest," Momo said, "But the suggestion does have some merit in it."

"I have a better idea," Ryoku said, "When I first said that the Clan Wars had just begun, it was actually in the middle of the actual clan wars. Clans were already at war, but when I said, announced it, was the only time it was actually recognized by the world. With the founding of the villages, The First Great Ninja war has just begun."

"What do you mean?" one clan head asked.

"Had I not requested the daimyo to sanction the creation and founding of this hidden village, you lot would have done it anyway, eventually, when the fighting had already started," Ryoku said, "But with fewer numbers, and lesser trust."

"You have been aware of things happening, which is why you have gathered all of us in one place," Keiji said.

"Something like that," Ryoku said, "The future isn't written in stone, but is forged by our own choices and actions. I just chose what was better for Mizu no Kuni as a whole."

"Then what are you suggestion regarding the choice for Shodaime?" someone asked.

"The selection of Shodaime will be left up to the followers, the shinobi of Kirigakure no Sato," Ryoku said, "They shall make this decision in the midst of war."

"War? But war has not yet been declared," someone said.

"This is a shinobi village, filled to the brim but not close to overflowing, with shinobi," Ryoku said, "The Daimyos will enter political battles, while the shinobi will be performing covert operations. The Mizukage will rise from the ranks, and will be acknowledged by his lot."

"Then who will make the first move?" Hibari asked.

"We already have a bloody history," Hajime said, "Let us make the first move, but who to target first?"

"No one," Ryoku said, "We need not make the first move, as we will not know who actually starts this conflict, we are only aware that it will start."

"Then what are we to do?"

"Prepare for war," Ryoku said, "Prepare to defend this new home, as well as the country, the shinobi of Kiri shall not leave the borders of Kiri. We shall preserve our strength and keep out of the conflict of the main land of the continent."

"That seems a bit cowardly."

"WE are shinobi and not samurai," Ryoku stated, "We lie in wait for the perfect chance to strike."

"Well, since we have no appointed and official leader, why don't you take charge for the time being?" someone suggested.

"Remember I will be the fourth, and not the first," Ryoku said, "Mix and match, you were all enemies once, you each know each others strengths and weaknesses. Form teams, specialists and well rounded ones. A cell of four members, one leader and three subordinates. Each member has strengths and weaknesses, each member making up for the weakness of the others, and so on and so on."

"We've been in battles with each other before," Hibari said, "Let's do this people! Gather the strategists, the intel people, and all the rest, we'll mix and match and make a mess!"

"Shut up Hibari!" someone decided to shout, and Ryoku simply kicked him out of the room.

"One last thing," Ryoku said.

"What?"

"Clan heads will remain within the village," Ryoku said, "I doubt that your clansmen will want to keep thinking about your safety while beyond the walls."

"What about you?"

"I will be finding that blasted bijuu," Ryoku said, "Before Senju Hashirama has a chance to."

Ryoku immediately left the room, and clan heads to figure out how to work together.

"Hibari..you seem to have known him the longest..do you know what he meant?" Keiji asked, the other clan heads remaining to hear the answer.

"I...he told me a story...about the creation of the bijuu.." Hibari said, "One word: Jinchuuriki."

"What of the Senju's part in all this?" Keiji asked.

"The Senju and Uchiha are the descendants of the Rikudou Sennin," Hibara said, "Ryoku-sama keeps tabs on the descendants of his students, or so he says. Hashirama has the power to supress and possibly control the bijuu..."

"But would be unable to do so, if there were a host.." Keiji said, "Interesting. We could be the first with such power.."

"Actually..Sunagakure no Sato and Kumogakure no Sato already have their own.." Hibari said.

"How do you know that?" Keiji asked, "Where did you get that information."

"I irritated Ryoku-sama..." Hibari said.

"And he told you that?" Keiji asked.

"He made the suggestion to Suna..he kicked the Ichibi's ass.." Hibari said, "With a Jinchuuriki..we'd be powerful..a threat.."

"Whatever..but who would house such a thing? Who would keep it contained?" Keiji asked.

"While the Senju would be able to control it, we could seal it into someone..but I think Ryoku-sama already has someone in mind," Hibari said.

"Do you know who?" Hajime asked.

"Got It!" Ryoku shouted surprising everyone as he suddenly appeared in the room with a giant scroll in his hands.

"You think we'll believe that a whole bijuu is sealed in that scroll?" someone asked.

"No," Ryoku said, "I've split the power of the damnable thing, it was fairly easy to track down."

"You split it? Can't you be kage?"

"I said not yet already," Ryoku said, "Anyway, the beast has been separated into three parts, each part in a different scroll. Three scrolls total. I want all of you, in addition to forming the teams, to agree on a hiding place for one of the scrolls. I will be hiding the other two."

"Which part does the village get?" Hibari asked.

"The body.." Ryoku said, "I'll hide away the spirit or soul somewhere, and the chakra of the beast I shall seal up in a sword."

"A sword? What happend to jinchuuriki?" someone asked.

"The Kage is the most powerful shinobi correct?" Ryoku asked.

"Yes."

"Then only the kage will be able to wield the sword," Ryoku said, "Minus myself."

"Why not yourself?"

"I cut the thing in three and you think I want a sword with its power in it?" Ryoku asked rhetorically.

"Well..when you put it that way.."

"Right then, you've got dutes, and I've got to figure out how the rest of the world goes," Ryoku said before vanishing, leaving a sword in his place. A simply katana.

"You don't think..?" Hajime said.

"The sword in the floor?" Keiji said.

"We'll just have to leave it there then," Hibara said, "So..I'll bring my elites with me over to training ground fourteen, meet you guys and yours in fifteen?"

"Sounds good," Keiji and Hajime said.


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

*

*

**POWER**

*

*

_**chapter twenty-four**_

_*_

_*_

No one really knew how it started, but people did know that the First Great Shinobi War began after the clans of the different lands united and formed not only alliances, but actual hidden villages. Instead of keeping separate they joined forces due to the threats of other countries forming such villages of their own. Word had spread that Kaze no Kuni had started the trend, followed by Kaminari no Kuni, the rest of the continent followed soon after that. With the founding of the villages, it was unknown who it was that dealt the first blow, who it was that disturbed the pond by throwing in that one significant pebble. But after whatever it was had happened, the world was thrust into war.

When the Daimyos refused to openly declare war on the other lands, it was up to their ninja forces to do so discretely. The ninja were tasked with sabotaging their land's possible enemies before open war was declared.

If there was one thing that Mizu no Kuni was known for, it was its neutrality, as well as its numerous internal conflicts, but the other nations did not want to take their chances so they sent in their own forces for a preemtive strike against possible future enemies. It was known throughout the world that the clans of Mizu no Kuni were still in conflict with one another, that the formation of the village was but a hoax, something to show the rest fo the world, it was fake. The rest of the world believed that the so called Kirigakure no Sato was merely a ploy, a strategy, a tactic, to make other nations think that they were worthy of becoming Great.

It was also well known that Kiri had yet to appoint a Kage, there was no supreme ruler over all thing ninja in Mizu no Kuni. The other lands believed that a hidden village would only be recognized as being truly united if there was a leader that lead the people, much like Konohagakure had a Hokage, and all the rest had their own.

All the teams of covert ops shinobi that had been sent into the Land of Water, had never returned alive, all that were returned to their villages were their heads. The Land of Water was where the most number of bloodline clans could be found, there were so numerous that it was thought by most that bloodlines actually began there. In a way it was true, as it was due to fish that chakra even came into being.

With the war on their hands, the clan heads of the clans of Kiri were able to work together, as there was that one goal, the goal of the prestige and the power which could be gained by one of theirs, the title of Mizukage and the power that came with it. There was also the prestige of the recognition of their collective selves as being a great hidden village, a military power worthy of being feared.

Each of the islands that made up the Land of Water had at least one small hidden village of its own, an outpost of sorts made up of representatives of all the water clans. It was thanks to these that no outsider was able to get in through the border of the land. Kiri, even at this early a stage, specialized in silent killing, in using the mist, and the rest of the environment to their advantage. These were shinobi closest to the old ways, flashy jutsu and their ilk were only used as a last resort, only when they were caught or outnumbered, but even then such things were kept at a minimum.

The shinobi stationed at the outposts, learned quickly to work with one another. They were also instructed to elect their own leader amongst the jounins. Jounin and Chunin were the ones that manned these bases of operations in each of the islands of Mizu no Kuni. They were experienced enough in their profession that they were able to work with one another, and accepted who ever was chosen as leader.

Not only were there outposts, but there were also regular patrols, moving swiftly and stealthifly all over the land, making sure that everything was alright, and no one had managed to make it far. There were even teams that scoured the waters for intruders, one never knew where or how the other nations might try to invade.

Unbeknownst to the Kiri-nin, they were being observed, secretly by the one that had the ability to do such a thing. Ryoku himself would send out his shadow clones to test the mettle of these kiri-nin, as well as spy on their progress when it came to working together. Ryoku would leave the hidden village to spy on his own people in the guise of either Ryuumusha, Keigo, or Shinobu, each one sported a special forehead protector compared to the ones that had been issued to the Kiri-nins before those that left for the outposts left. Theirs held the kanji for Kiri instead of the symbol of the village.

"They come," Ryoku suddenly said during one meeting with the clan heads.

"What do you mean Ryoku-sama?" Hibari asked, as he usually sat near Ryoku.

"Who comes?" Keiji asked, he was one of the strategists of the village, as appointed by his own rivals.

"Kumogakure no Sato comes," Ryoku said, "Prepare for invasion, they come with the backing of their Daimyo. Open war has just begun."

"How are you so sure of such a thing Ryoku-sama?" Hajime asked.

"One of my spies has just relayed the information to me," Ryoku said, "They are sending in half of their village's worth of shinobi, along with a fourth of the army of Kaminari no Kuni."

"What are we to do then?" one clan head asked, "We may have the numbers to face the Kumo half, but the land's army...we do not have enough man power for that."

"They will all be coming in by ship," Ryoku said, "In terms of borders, all we have with other naitons are sea, our land is our own, even though it is made up of islands, and with this big one which we and the capital are located on. They will be coming in from the North. Hibari, inform the Daimyo of these developments."

"Right away," Hibari said and left the conference room.

"Send out messengers to all outposts," Ryoku said, "No man or woman may step foot on our shores."

"I'll have my team form the battle plans," Keiji said, "But how about our men, do we too stay on ships?"

"Figure it out," Ryoku said, "Just make sure that not one of these invaders touches the sands of our shores. Oh, and make sure that the Jounin commanders are sent back here. We need them on the Western front."

"Don't tell us..Hi no Kuni will be attacking as well.." a clan head said.

"The Hi no Kuni army is busy, but their Daimyo is sending some of the shinobi to attack us and our singular ally," Ryoku said.

"We have an ally? Since when?" Aoi asked.

"Since I founded this village," Ryoku said, "Those damnable Uzumakis have been keeping in contact with me, and when they found out about my founding this village, they pledged themselves as our allies."

"Why allies and not join us?" Aoi asked.

"Uzu no Kuni is ruled by one clan, the Uzumaki clan, they refuse to be ordered around as their main family can still trace their way back to the first Sennin," Ryoku said, "It is this pride that keeps them away, and solitary. They will be aiding the Jounins in defending the East, but secretly as they are also allied with Konoha."

"But if they are also allied with Konoha why would they aid us as well? What did you do?" Momo asked.

"Because I trained the first Sennin, the Uzumaki Sennin, therefore should I call on them, they shall answer," Ryoku said, "As would the Ryuuko clan, but they have chosen to be neutral in this war, as in any succeeding one."

"They're too far, it doesn't matter," Mizuki said, "We'll accept any aid these Uzumaki can give us, but how can twenty-seven jounin match up to whatever Konoha are sending?"

"This will be the test for the title and position of Kage," Ryoku said, "I shall be joining them in this fight, the deciding battle for this war, our part in this war will be between all our forces and the two invaders."

"How will we know who among them is the Kage?" Mizuki asked.

"These twenty-seven will choose amongst themselves," Ryoku said, "I will be with them of course, and who ever will be chosen will return with that Hat I keep trying to figure out how to make."

"The Hat will be the symbol of the rank of Kage, much as Chunin have that flak Jacket, and Jounin have their own jacket or vest, as well as the other groups, like the oi-nin, medic-nin, and the rest," Ryoku said, "From the twenty-seven, they will choose amongst themselves who will be the guards of the Kage, the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu."

"Why that name? Also why should there even be such a group?" Momo asked.

"These will be the seven runners-up for the title of Kage," Ryoku said, "Who better to protect the kage then those that are on par with the kage."

"Heh, we'll send out the messages at once," Saito said, "What will you do in the mean time?"

"I will be preparing that Hat," Ryoku said, "Oh, and the next time the village will see me is when I take up the seat of power as Kage."

"What!?" the clan heads exclaimed, "Why!?"

"With a leader in place, you wont need me will you," Ryoku said, "But worry not, I will return, I wish to be in awe of the village that I have created."

"So when you do leave for this up coming battle, the next time that we shall see you will be after the Third either resigns or dies?" Keiji asked.

"You've got that right," Ryoku said as he replaced the common clothes that he was wearing with his Avatar garb, that which is assiciated with his being Taijutsu no Tatsujin, "I promise I'll be back for my place. I will also be taking this battle seriously."

"Well if you put it that way..." Gensou Renji said, his clan specialized in illusions, "I'm willing to trust you. Haha, you really are immortal!"

"What do you mean by that Renji?" Momo asked.

"We've seen Ryoku-sama wear different sets of clothing, but never before has he worn what he just changed into now," Renji said, "My ancestor was family to the wife of the Rikudou Sennin, and he kept a journal about many things, including what the Taijutsu no Tatsujin wore."

"A living legend walks amongst us, and a living legend fights by our side," Saito said, "Interesting, and to think we never cared much for the past before."

"Enough about me," Ryoku said, "Don't you lot have duties to attend to?"

#

Ryoku and his forces, which consisted of twenty-seven Jounin, met up with twenty-six Uzumaki kunoichi and one shinobi on a small island which rose and sank with the tide. It was the farthest island of Mizu no Kuni, but at the same time it was the first island that the invaders from Hi no Kuni would encounter.

"Ah, Mejin, nice to see that you finally decided to grace us with your presence," Ryoku said, as Mejin finally arrived as he was the slowest of the Kiri Jounin commanders.

"Its not my fault there were so many whirlpools in the way," Mejin said.

"Haha, Mejin we were slowed down too!" Hashi Majin said humorously.

"Enough banter," Ryoku said, "Kasumi, what is the status of the Konoha-nins?"

"They're coming from the South-West of our position, as this is the closest island to the mainland, they'll reach out position in less than two days at the most," Uzumaki Kasumi reported.

"Alright," Ryoku said, "Kiri-nin, each of you will pair up with an Uzu-nin, and move to your designated locations which the Uzu-nins already know. You are the first and last defense that Mizu no Kuni has against the invaders, remember that should you lose so will Mizu."

"That's quite a burden for us to bear Ryoku-sama," Okasaka Kei said, "But we'll do it, and show the world not to underestimate the power of Kiri, young as our unified hidden village may be."

"Good to hear," Ryoku said.

"But what about you?" Mejin asked.

"I will also be fighting in a way," Ryoku said, "Shodaime Hokage has decided to send a beast to battle us, one which was meant as a distraction for most of our forces. I shall be facing this beast, if any of you wish to aid me, then you better send those Konoha-nins home before you do."

"What beast would this be?" Miyaki Osamu asked.

"The Kyuubi no Kitsune," Ryoku stated.

"What!?" Mejin said, "But to face that beast...the Sanbi is no match for it..."

"I may not have the power to face the combined might of all nine beasts, but just one will be a piece of cake for me," Ryoku said, "It has been a long time since I have become serious in battle. Good luck to you lot, and may you bring victory to Kiri!"


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter twenty-five**_

Who knew that Konoha had so much confidence in their abilities, just because their main founders were Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, two of the legendary shinobi of the era. They had clearly overestimated themselves by sending a little more than seven hundred of their elite shinobi to invade Mizu no Kuni while at the same time also taking advantage of Kaminari no Kuni's invasion from the North.

The Konoha-nin thought that they would be having an easy time getting into the country. They were sorely mistaken as they were met with a barrier of shinobi between themselves and their objective. Twenty-seven Jounin stood in their path, twenty-seven Kiri-nin stood facing close to a thousand Konoha-nin. Never underestimate one's opponent is a rule in the shinobi world, but in this case the Konoha-nin forgot about that little thing, and decided that since they were more, they were stronger. A philosophy which lost them quite a lot within the first four hours of their battles. They were also overconfident in the distraction which their Kage had sent with them, in the distance they were able to see the hulking form of the Kyuubi.

The group of seven hundred two Konoha-nins split up into twenty-seven teams to take on the Kiri-nin, out numbering them twenty-seven to one, since the Uzu-nin were only there as guideas as well as to provide medical aid. While not able to fight toe to toe with the Hokage, each of the Kiri-nin were very close to that level. The only thing missing was actually being called a Kage, the actual confidence which would come with the title would place one of them on par with another Kage.

None of the twenty-seven knew that they were the Kage candidates, only that they were the first and last line of defense on the western edge of their country. Ryoku hadn't bothered to inform them of that part of the mission. They didn't need such a distraction, they needed to focus on the task at hand which was to beat back their opponents and prove that Kiki-nin were worth their place in the changing world.

The Konoha-nin came riding boats, all of which had been turned to driftwood as soon as they were within range of the water jutsu of the hidden Kiri-nins who were waiting for their prey underwater. It was at that time that they stopped moving and decided to try and locate the defenders who were obviously there.

When the Kiri-nin were finally located, and the Kiri-nin knew they had been found, they all activated a single jutsu, the signature jutsu of their village.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu," they each whispered as a mist rose up around them and the invaders, then each voice echoed throughout the mists, "Eight points. Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart. Where shall I attack first?"

The Kiri-nin did not bother with releasing any form of killing intent or mixing any such with the mists as that could be used to guide their enemies to their positions. They were all masters of a blade, from a mere pocket knife to a zanbatou. They each silently made their way through the mists, mists that were filled with their chakra, an amount which even they hadn't known they had.

The Konoha-nin were far too slow for these silent killers in the mists, twenty-seven Konoha-nin were taken dragged into the depths of the sea after the question was posed to them. What good are numbers when those numbers can't even locate a single enemy. As soon as they allowed the Kiri-nin to form the mist, they were goners, or they would have been had the Kiri-nin not decided to spare a few of them.

It was only after eighty-one Konoha-nin were slain, did one of them finally think about blowing the mist away. That was when they found themselves face to face with an equal number of the enemy, the usefulness of clones, regular bushin, these illusionary clones aided the Kiri-nin when they decided to finally simply attack. Lashing out with creatures made out of water. Riding the attacks themselves to get to the Konoha-nin, and shredding them to bits as soon as they were in range of their blades.

"For Kirigakure! For Mizu no Kuni!" Mejin shouted as he barreled into one of the Konoha-nin, a Hyuuga that had been unable to see through the mist, his comrades doing and declaring similar things as they engaged the enemy, taking on the teams all at once, with their clones to aid them as distractions.

Mejin took out fifteen more of his group of attackers before he thought of how stupid he was being, he jumped away and did some more flips to get as far from the Konoha-nin as he could before having his hands fly through a set of seals, ending with him slamming a palm on the unbroken water's surface.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Mejin called out, and from under him bubbles arose from underneath the water, and a few seconds later, he found himself standing on the head of the Otter Boss, Meizu.

"What is the meaning of this?" Meizu asked his summoner.

"Konoha-nin are trying to invade Mizu no Kuni," Mejin informed his summon, "Ryoku-sama is battling the Kyuubi, and I would like to aid him in driving it away."

"Then leave these small fry to me, and go help your allies!" Meizu said as he picked up Mejin and flung him in the direction of Majin who seemed to be having a hard time fighting his own group of enemies as most of them were Akimichi, and whose bodies were a little bit too much for just one nin to handle.

"Take this!" Mejin shouted as he neared the nearest literal giant of a man, one of his hands held his wakizashi, while the one he was going to hit the Akimichi with held a large closed oyster, one which seemed to radiate chakra. He slammed the oyster into the Akimichi catching the man offguard, then after landing on top of the water he dashed to Majin and dragged his ally away from the Konoha-nin.

"Hey! I can still fight! Let me go Mejin!" Majin shouted as he was literally dragged over to the next Kiri-nin's location.

"You don't want to be there when that Oyster Bomb explodes," Mejin said, running as fast as his chakra enhanced legs could carry them both.

Where the hell did you get such a big Oyster?" Majin asked, still being dragged by Mejin.

"Kekkai Genkai," Mejin said, "My fingernails, or any of my nails, I can turn into some kind of shell protective or otherwise."

"So that's what you guys can do...I just thought you guys were just really good at defending yourselves," Majin said.

"We are," Mejin said, "I'll fling you over to Kei, looks like he's in trouble. So go Beast-mode on their asses."

"How did you...hey!" Majin shouted as he was flung ahead of Mejin, "Fine!" he shouted then transformed into his beast form, which was a form where he literally turned into a beast a kind of monsters, enhanced everything, but not enough chakra to perform Jutsu with. He slammed into three of the Konoha-nin and sucker punched three more.

***BOOM!*** the Oyster Bomb finally exploded, the shockwave strong enough to form waves, and even managed to get Mejin over to the three in a manner of seconds, knocking away the remaining Konoha-nin that Kei was fighting.

"That was amazing!" Mejin shouted as he jumped up and down like a child, "Never thought that it would be that strong!"

"You guys are crazy!" one of the Konoha-nin shouted, and started to back away, dragging his sinking but still living comrades with him, "You've won this round, but we'll be back!"

After the Konoha-nin finally left, a number the other Kiri-nin arrived where the trio were resting.

"Thanks a lot Mejin!" Matsu Nobuo said, "If it weren't for your summon it would have taken us a while to get our fights done."

"Great job slowpoke," Maeda Sadao said, "Shall we go aid Ryoku-sama?"

"Have they all really retreated?" Mejin asked.

"They have," Kasumi said appearing amidst the group, "Our own summons reported that they're heading back to dry land."

"We walk on water as if its second nature to us already," Mejin said as he simply sat on the water's surface, the water not even rippling, "Let's rest up a bit, I doubt Ryoku-sama would want exhausted aid."

"Great idea, we need the rest anyhow," Shigeru Shigeo said then plunged a hand into the water and brought out some seaweed, "Here, have a bite of this, it should give you guys back some chakra."

"Let me guess," Majin said, "Your bloodline."

"Yep, rather useless most of the time though, as we Shigeru can only work with seaweed," Shigeo said.

"Anyone else use their bloodline?" Kaguya Takao asked, being the last to actually arrive, he was covered head to toe in bones.

"Did you guys hear that explosion?" Mejin asked.

"Yeah," the rest said.

"That was me," Mejin said, "Didn't know it would be that strong though."

"Apparently you're the only one with a summon contract among us," Takao said, "Glad to have met the Otter boss. Matches you perfectly."

They rested for a little bit longer, close to an hour later, the still complete group headed out in the direction of the Kyuubi where Ryoku was battling with the beast. But when they were half-way there, Shigeo called out to his companions to stop as he had sensed something.

"What is it?" Majin asked.

"I'm a sensor, and it seems like those Uzu-nin may have been half right, but at the same time wrong," Shigeo said, "The second wave are coming..around two hundred nins...they're coming in fast too."

"If you say so," Mejin said, deciding to take charge of the situation, "Majin, Takao, and Sadao, we'll hold 'em of, while the rest of you go help Ryoku-sama, even though we should trust him, he's been battling the thing for several hours now and will need to be relieved that he may rest."

"Just four of you guys against two hundred?" Kushiki Yuji said, "I'm going with you four, a kitsune has fire on its side, a fire that may be able to melt my ice, while these are just men. I'm going with you, you'll need my cold."

"I can make these fire brats Katon jutsu backfire on them," Nobuo said, "I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not."

"I'll come too," Asano Kou said, "While you need an explosion to make waves, with us close together, I can make them with only a small burst of chakra."

"Fine, the seven of us then," Mejin said, "Now that I think about it, we need a genjutsu specialist, Yasuo we could use your illusions."

"I'll come, I was thinking about it, and I doubt I could best a kitsune at that art," Gensou Yasuo said.

"Then we part ways here," Mejin said, "See you when all this is over."

"Meet back at the island," Shigeo said, "I'm sure that once they find their bigger fish gone, they'll flee for real this time."

#

"Hahaha! I hven't had this much fun in centuries!" Ryoku shouted as he dodged gouts of flames, water dragons, hurled boulders, lightning bolts, and a number of other things from tails to paws, and a single maw. This particular bijuu was intense, sending all manner of elemental attack against Ryoku whom it had yet to recognize.

"**Stand still Mortal! That I might crush you like the insect you are!**" Kyuubi roared as it tried to drown Ryoku once again with his many tails.

"I bet you told that Senju that! But you're still here fighting me!" Ryoku said, pissing off the beast, as it knew that it lacked the power necessary to truly go against the Senju head, the Shodaime Hokage who had the power to control the tailed beasts, even he himself was powerless against the seemingly divine power of Senju Hashirama, he the Kyuubi no Kitsune was no match for a mere mortal.

"**Stand still I say! Let me crush you mortal!**" Kyuubi raged, as it was not allowed to simply drown the land of water with a tsunami.

"Mortal? Me?" Ryoku taunted the beast, "I helped in besting your former self! Can you not remember me? Shukaku remembered me!"

"**Now that I think about it..you do seem familiar..**" Kyuubi said, its pondering look was all Ryoku needed to deliver a kick to its chin sending it flying a few yards away from the island nations.

"I should!" Ryoku shouted as he ran at the temporarily downed form and kicked the beast into the air, deciding that holding back may be a bad thing in this particular battle.

He unleashed his god-like strength on the beast, unleashing kicks and punches in quick succession, delivering bone shattering blows on the pitiful beast. Making any witness from afar believe that he was having trouble as no one would dare think that any one man would be able to handle such a beast on his own.

"While I may not be able to stop what happens in the future," Ryoku said, "I may provide a solution for the present, ridding the world of you until the time when I will be unable to send you back to the depths of the abyss myself."

"**Send me to hell! Ha! You will not be able to destroy me so easily!**" Kyuubi responded and righted itself, just as the Kiri-nins arrived to aid their village founder, their jutsu flying at breakneck speed buying some time for their sealing comrade.

"**More insects! These additional hairless apes will look to be more like those that I have been ordered to devour!**" Kyuubi roared then lunged in the direction of the Kiri-nin who scattered upon noticing the beast's intentions, as well as hearing its words.

"How do we get rid of this thing!" one of the Jounins questioned, they had been peppering it with jutsu upon jutsu, knowing that their weapons would be no use against it.

"We could seal the blasted thing into something!" another of them shouted, all the while hopping all over the place sending out attack after attack against the beast, even going so far as to utilizing their bloodlines.

Ryoku upon realizing that his reinforcements had arrived decided to seal away the Kyuubi, while he would not be able to seal it away within himself, he could seal it away in a realm separate from the rest of the world, but still remaining in the world, much like the summon realms which peppered the Shinobi World.

"Nothing seems to be working, and my sealing isn't all that great!" another Jounin shouted, not really paying attention to the fact that the beast could hear their every word.

"**You!**" Kyuubi finally shouted realizing from where he remembered Ryoku, "**You were there! You fiend! Its all your fault! I shall crush you! I shall kill you! I shall have my revenge!**"

It then crouched low, its head looking straight up, while its body seeming to explode outward releasing balls of chakra. It paid no mind to the attacks sent its way by the Kiri-nin. They were pitiful annoyances compared to the attacks that it had felt when it was still a part of the whole that was the Juubi no Shiryuu.

"What the hell is it doing? Our attacks aren't working!" the Jounins said.

"Calm down," Shigeo said gathering them up as it seemed that the beast was focusing on its task, while Ryoku was focusing on his own.

"Why should we be calm, its planning something, and we can't even do anything to it!" one of the jounin said.

"By distracting its attention from Ryoku-sama, we have been able to do something, but now..we just have to watch and wait," Shigeo said.

Its tails arched over and pointed their tips at a spot directly infront of the maw of the beast. The balls of chakra then began to gather at that point, they began to merge with one another, then began to compress. The sheer amount of energy coming from the shrinking ball of chakra was immense.

"We have to get farther away from here!" Shigeo shouted over the sudden noise that the compressing ball was giving off.

"But what about Ryoku-sama?" one of the Jounins asked, "We can't just leave him there!"

"We have to!" Shigeo said, "We have to trust him!"

When they were a ways away from the beast, far enough away that the noise could no longer be heard, and the power in the ball could barely be felt, they watched as the beast opened its massive maw and swallowed the ball. After that, it seemed to suddenly expand, blowing up like a balloon, it seemed to grow heavy as its body suddenly crashed into the water, sending large waves in all directions, but none powerful enough to be called tsunamis.

"Surfing time!" the Hoshigaki of the group said as he pushed off of the water with his zanbatou in tow, which prompted his companions to jump as high as they could as well, all to avoid the waves, then slid down surfing style, riding on the flat part of their blades, no matter how small they may have been. Shigeo's being a pair of katana sized sai was hard to imagine.

The beast then opened its mouth and let out a fierce roar while at the same time also releasing the pent up energy it had released within itself. The discharge of energy was immense. It literally lit up the horizon in its intensity. A beam of light which could be seen from the shores of the mainland, as well as from the farthest island of the Land of Water. It was that bright and its power was that strong.

But at the same time, it could go no further than Ryoku's position, as the beam was sent straight upward, as if there was a mirror strong enough to deflect it and send it up into the atmosphere. When the beam suddenly lost all of its power, all that remained was the massive Kitsune and a dot on the horizon.

"Is he alive?" a Jounin asked.

"He better be," Shigeo said, "Or we're screwed."

Even further away where Mejin and his group were...

"Keep fighting and trust our comrades not to fail us!" Mejin said as he continued to fight the stunned into silence Konoha-nin that temporarily forgot that they were fighting. Mejin's comrades snapped out of it just in time to deliver devastating blows to the invading nins, before they got back to their senses.

"**How are you still alive!**" the Kiri-nins heard the beast ask, "**You should have been incinerated!"**

"Go to sleep already," Ryoku said, as he suddenly moved from his spot on the water, or rather from the frozen island that used to be water, to directly in front of the beast, his form had instantly changed from his human form to his phoenix form, ~this was the form you first saw me in, and this shall be the last form you see me in, until you reawaken from your slumber~

From where Shigeo and his group were staying, they simply saw the dot vanish and instead of a dot, they saw a large bird hovering in front of the beast, the words they had not been able to hear, but they did witness the beast begin to disappear. Its body vanishing until finally only the bird remained.

Ryoku had sealed away the beast in a realm within the world, separate yet connected, similar to a heavily warded area, he also put the beast to sleep with the equivalent in magic of bijuu tranquilizer.

With getting rid of the Kyuubi done, Ryoku teleported to the spot directly in front of Shigeo, reverting back to human form mid-transit, surprising the jounins with his sudden arrival.

"What the hell!"

"Let's go collect the others," Ryoku said, "They're probably either exhausted or or mocking the Konoha-nins, that are surely running back to their forest now."

They ran all the way to where Mejin and company were actually sleeping on a whirlpool, only Mejin being the one awake, and while not taunting the retreating Konoha-nins, was trying to count the rings of the whirlpool which Kasumi had created to keep them afloat.

"How was the fight?" Ryoku asked, as he and his group arrived.

"Tiring," Mejin said, "I think I'm almost out of chakra."

"You would be right in that regard," Ryoku said, then faced Kasumi, "Leave them to me, I shall send them back, and did you have to send the blasted thing over here?"

"It was the strongest of them, and the easiest to emulate," Kasumi said.

"Uzumaki Sennin," Ryoku said, "Those Ika taught you well."

"That they did, but not as well as you taught my ancestor," she said.

"Leave us and thank you Kasumi," Ryoku instructed, and she followed his order and left the men to slowly sink into the sea, only to be grabbed by their companions, lifting them out of the water.

"Twenty-seven Kiri-nin, against close to one thousand Konoha-nin,"Nobuo said breathlessly, "How the hell did you know we would manage?"

"You are the leaders of your outposts, miniature hidden villages on their own, you were elected and trusted," Ryoku said, "As you all know, there is still no Kage for Kiri. You can stop channeling chakra to the soles of your feet, I've got you."

"What...Oh..how are you doing that?" Majin asked, awakening from his slumber caused by exhaustion, "I'm still above the surface of the water."

"It is a gift I possess, as well as years of practice," Ryoku said, "As I was saying, you are the chosen candidates for the position of Shodaime Mizukage. Now chose amongst yourselves who are the eight that are best for the position."

"Eight? Why eight?" Koori Ran asked, "There is something else, isn't there, something which you still refuse to tell us."

"There will always be somethng which I will not tell you," Ryoku said, "Now, decide amongst yourselves, who should it be?"

"Mejin, Majin, Nobuo, Takao, Yuji, Kou, Yasuo, and Shigeo," the Jounins that went with Shigeo to Ryoku said at the same time as if they had rehersed it.

"The eight of you," Ryoku said, "Are now to chose who of you will be Kage."

"Is there a way that we can do this that doesn't have us voice our choices?" Nobuo asked.

"Here," Ryoku said producing some pieces of paper and some pens, "Write down your choice, fold the paper and hand it to me."

The eight scribbled their choices and handed over the papers and pens to Ryoku who vanished the pens, and scrambled the papers as to make it not obvious who chose who. He then handed over the papers to Ran.

"Read them," Ryoku said, "I will be back moentarily, don't worry about sinking."

Ryoku simply vanished from view by sinking into the sea, he had left to fetch the Hat he had created, one that would be able to stand the test of time, one of the marks or symbols of a Kage, the Hat.

"Shigeo," Ran read, "Mejin, Mejin, Mejin, Mejin, Mejin, Mejin, and Mejin."

"Well...it looks like the slowpoke is our Kage," Sadao said, "Congratulations Mejin!"

"Me?" Mejin said, still a little tired, "Yasuo! You said you wouldn't chose me since you suspected this to be some form of test!"

"Deceit is a shinobi's best friend," Yasuo said in his defense, "What's wrong with being voted as Kage anyway?"

"Well..nothing I guess," Mejin said, "So when do you guys think he'll be back, cause I don't think I have the chakra to get us home.."

"Looks like we're stuck...on this..island of water.." Shigeo said.

"Mah..I'm going to sleep, wake me when he gets back," Majin said, then promptly fell asleep, leaning against Mejin."

"I like his idea," Ran said, "Nap time."

"We're stuck in the middle of nowhere, and its not like those Konoha-nin are coming back anytime soon," Shigeo said and got himself into a comfortable position and fell asleep as well, the rest following suit, but not before deciding the order of the watch.

By the time Ryoku returned, he found all twenty-seven Jounins sleeping, so he woke them up.

"Kasumi! This is not the time and place for you to bathe!" Ryoku shouted, not that Kasumi was there, but the Jounins all of them male didn't know that.

"Where!" the twenty-seven all shouted upon waking up, all bolting upright and looking everywhere.

"That wasn't funny old man," Mejin said after realizing what had been done.

"Well at least I know all of you found her that attractive," Ryoku said, "She's married by the way."

"Spoil our fun why don't you," Yuji said whining.

"Congratulations Mejin," Ryoku said and handed over the first custom Mizukage uniform, "While the robe may one day need to be replaced, the hat never will, so you better not lose it. You are now Mizukage, there should be a formal celebration of some kind once you inform the clan heads of the decision, so don't wear the duds until then."

"What about the rest of us? Do we get anything?" Kei asked.

"The other seven that were chosen by the lot of you, are to collectively be known as Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu, the elite of the elite, and personal guards of the Mizukage," Ryoku said, he then produced seven blank swords.

They were called blank swords because they looked like ordinary katana, but they had a special quality ability and purpose.

"Take one each of you," Ryoku instructed the seven, "Channel chakra into them, these will be the symbols of your position, only your chosen successor will be able to use them to their full potential, don't lose them either."

"Will they change forms after this? When they change hands I mean?" Nobuo asked.

"No, they will not," Ryoku said, "They may gain some kind of form of life, but that's about it. As for getting home, take this," he then reached into the sea and pulled out a boot, and handed it over to Mejin, "Once all of you are holding onto it, it will transport you to the outskirts of Kirigakure no Sato, where by the time of your arrival, the rest of the village population have already been waitin for your return for about a week."

"Why so long from now?" Mejin asked.

"It adds dramatic effect," Ryoku said, "Do you honestly think I'm going to tell you the real reason?"

"Well, no," Mejin said then came to a realization, "You're not coming back with us are you, Ryoku-sama?"

"I wont be seeing Kiri until I take that hat back," Ryoku said, then shifted into his Keigo guise, "I'll be staying somewhere else in the meantime."

"You!" seven Jounins said accusingly while pointing fingers at Ryoku.

"Yes, me," Ryoku said, "Someone had to make sure that you weren't abusing your powers."

"Calm down you guys," Mejin said, "We've got to get home, ASAP."

"Hai, Mizukage-sama!" the twenty-six shinobi said.

"Knock it off! Its not official official yet!" Mejin said, minutes later all twenty-seven of them disappeared.

'_Now where do I go..._' Ryoku wondered, then teleported back to his mountain hideaway, not to be seen again, until midway through the Third Great Shinobi War.


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter twenty-six**_

Refugees of untold numbers had been arriving in places that still remained untouched by war. One such place was Mori no Kuni, which was protected by the being locals called Yuurei no Mori, or the other way around. None that had ill intentions for the residents of the land were permitted to leave alive, or enter for that matter. Also the only soldiers that could enter the country were the soldiers of the land, none from the other nations were permitted entrance, each that tried, those with good intentions, mysteriously found themselves back within the borders of their own countries, unharmed, but away from Mori no Kuni.

While Yuurei no Mori no longer accepted students, or lost persons into his hidden home, he still helped by providing supplies for the newly arrived refugees. He was the undisputed and unofficial ruler of Mori no Kuni, the Daimyo himself waited for signs from him before making major decisions. One such decision being which country to send aid to, Tsuchi no Kuni or Kaze no Kuni, which were the two superpowers that were on either side of its borders. A perilous decision, they were being pressured by either country to take a side, to take a stand, and the Daimyo needed a decision to be made.

The sign for this particular decision was in the form of a man, Ryoku had finally decided that it was time to leave his hideaway once again, and venture forth into the outside world, leaving automatic magics in place to continue his work as the Yuurei no Mori, the one providing protection for the inhabitants of Mori no Kuni, the overkill protections would shut down when the war would be over.

"Kaze no Kuni needs it more than Tsuchi no Kuni," Ryoku said appearing in the study of the Lord of the land.

"Who are you? How did you get in here? Guards!" the Daimyo shouted and demanded and called.

"None shall come," Ryoku stated, "I have made sure that no sound escapes this room."

"What do you want with me?"

"I want nothing more than to inform you personally and no longer through signs, that Kaze no Kuni should be your choice," Ryoku said, "And even if you shout yourself hoarse, they will not come, and even should someone enter the room, they will not see me, for I am only visible to you."

"Prove it," the Daimyo demanded, "I have told no one of the signs I have seen, prove that you were the one to send the signs."

"Concerning the trade treaty with Mizu no Kuni, I sent a clouds in the shapes of a pod of whales, to show you that the treaty should be approved, it was the same sign I showed your grandfather," Ryoku stated, "The significance being that Murasaki Kujira was the Daimyo that had planned on having a treaty with Mori no Kuni."

"Then you really are him," the Daimyo said, "What purpose have you come here, aside from the side Mori no Kuni is to take in the present conflict."

"I have come to tell you that while something will remain the same, it is time for me to leave," Ryoku informed him, "I go to Mizu no Kuni, but worry not, Mori no Kuni will continue to be safe, I have made sure of it. Supplies will still mysteriously appear, and the like will still continue to occur."

"Is that all? Why did you find the need to tell me of this?"

"For you are the end of your mother's clan's line," Ryoku said, "The last direct descendant, of my last pupil as the Yuurei no Mori. It was that pupil that convinced me to stop aiding the world as I used to, and now I am here to inform you that I will stop aiding you, as you have grown far too dependant on me. Make your own decisions, and stop questioning yourself when you make decisions of your own."

"I...I will, Yuurei-sama."

"As I have never introduced myself, I shall tell you my name," Ryoku said, "I am Ryoku. For now, I bid you farewell."

#

"We shall wait, he will arrive, and come to guide us as he did when he founded the village all those years ago," Hoshigaki Ginrei stated confidently.

"How can you be so confident, Ginrei-sama?" Okasaka Omoi asked the representative of the Hoshigaki in the village council.

"The Hat has disappeared, and the sword is stuck in the floor of the council conference room once more," Ginrei said, "I personally placed the Hat on the Kage's desk in the Kage's office, in the Kage's tower, and watched alongside ten witnesses as it vanished. He said he would return to take up the position of Kage, and so he shall."

"But how are you so confident?" Omoi asked, "I mean, for all we know the disappearance of the Hat could be attributed to his having finally died!"

"Now," a new voice spoke from behind the two old men, "If I knew that I would be dead at this time, I wouldn't have wasted that request, now would I?"

"Gah!" the two men shout out and get into defensive positions as Anbu flood the room.

"Who are you?" Omoi demands, while the Anbu unsheathe their blades just in case.

"Relax," Ginrei said, "I feel the link, Ryoku-sama, it is good to have you back."

"It is good to be back," Ryoku said, "How long has it been since the Sandaime passed away?"

"A week and a day," Ginrei informed him, "I presume you have the Hat."

"I do," Ryoku said as he laid it on his head, "Ah, Mejin really did take good care of it."

"The blade is where you left it," Ginrei said, "But I have a feeling you will not be claiming it."

"I do not need an inferior blade," Ryoku said, "It is a good thing that I was able to leave precautions in place against Uchihas wanting to gain power in this land, else I would have asked 'how long since he disappeared'."

"An Uchiha did come, and try to take the place of our beloved Sandaime, it was through his guidance that we were able to stay out of the present conflict for so long," Ginrei said, "Now that you are here, maybe we should present you to the people, there are always those that have been waiting for the Yondaime to be announced to them."

"Let's get this over with," Ryoku said, "I'm sure the Sandaime left me some paperwork to accomplish."

"Ah, heheh..yes, there definitely is that," Ginrei said, and lead Ryoku to where the announcement would be made.

Ginrei lead Ryoku to the roof of the Mizukage Tower, which was where such announcements were made. There really were people milling about on the street below in front of the tower, they were waiting for the arrival of the one that was to be their Yondaime, a living legend. Before Ryoku arrived the people that had actually decided to camp there, noticed that the Hoshigaki clan had arrived en masse. The entire clan was there, from the youngest members to the oldest, the only one missing was the council member Ginrei.

"Why's your whole family here?" one man asked a Hoshigaki clansman.

"He is here, the Yondaime Mizukage has arrived," the Hoshigaki clansman replied.

"How can you be so sure?" the man asked the clansman.

"We Hoshigaki had a connection to the legendary man himself, a pact made between the clan through Hoshigaki Hibari with the Yondaime Mizukage well before the founding of the village itself," the clansman replied.

It was at that time that Ginrei appeared for all to see, walking behind him was a Ryoku, who looked to not have aged a day over fifty wearing the uniform of the Mizukage, minus the Hat. The people on the ground only looked up once they noticed that the Hoshigaki were looking up, even the newborns. They really did have a connection with the Yondaime Mizukage. But the first person the people saw was Ginrei, and grew a little depressed, and thought that the Hoshigaki were liars, but that train of thought ended as soon as they saw Ryoku standing in front of the village elder and councilman.

He stood proud, he stood tall, his gaze washing over the people on the ground below, and even those on the rooftops who tried to get a better look at him. He wore the robes of his position, the only thing missing was the Hat, the hat that all of Kiri had at one point in time had witnessed being used to send a wave close to a tsunami in size toward the coast of Kaminari no Kuni to stop an invasion attempt before it was even able to leave their docks. It was just as famous as the Shodaime's Oyster Big Bang Bomb which could send just as big waves, but in all directions unlike the hat that only sent waves in one direction.

"I present to you Ryoku-sama, your Yondaime Mizukage!" Ginrei shouted for all to hear, his chakra amplifying his voice for it to be heard throughout the whole of the village.

Ryoku then walked up to the rails, his hands hidden beneath his robes, he gazed upon his people once more, an emotionless mask covering his face.

"How can he be the Mizukage? He's got the robe, but what of the Hat?" one civilian asked aloud.

As if hearing the question, Ryoku reached out a hand, and pointed a finger at opposite horizon as if signalling something. The sentries patrolling the walls, and guarding the gates into the village were astonished at what they witnessed at that instant. The mists that surrounded the village began to swirl, and condense into forms a great many creatures, from simple fish to the most intricate of dragons. These creatures of the mists then poured over the walls of the village, entered the gates, but even as the outer limits of the village were covered in mists, the mists that hid away the village seemed to grow even thicker, and in some places hotter like steam. From this steam more forms began to form, humanoid forms, then human forms, from children to elders, and some even resembled people long thought gone, and others that truly were. These too entered the village. The mists all converging in the palm of Ryoku's hand.

It was an amazing sight, one which most could not comprehend why it was happening, there was no chakra used to manipulate the mists, there weren't any visible hand signs, nothing. It just seemed to happen. The question from that random civilian served as a trigger for Ryoku's and the mists' actions.

They swirled around Ryoku, growing in density, until he, along with the tower, was no longer visible to the naked eye, not even those who had the ability to see through the mists were able to see through this dense cloud surrounding Ryoku.

Just when someone was just about to think the thought wondering how long this presentation would last, Ryoku dispersed the mists, blowing them all back out of the village, and back to where they served as a natural boundary between the outside world and the hidden village. Revealng him standing there in the same place as before the mists gathered around him, he was finally wearing the Hat, he had created all those years ago.

While other villages simply viewed the hat as decoration or as a symbol, Ryoku made sure that the Hat could at least be used as a weapon. Which was how Mejin had been able to send that tsunami like wave to the Kaminari coast by simply throwing the hat over the sea in that direction. The hat had spells on it that made sure that no matter how far away it was, it would always eventually return to the Mizukage. It was a village treasure which was nex to impossible to steal.

"Unification and peace within the bloody mist," Ryoku whispered, a whisper which was heard by all of Kiri, those in and out of the village at the time, "Blood is thicker than water..but the mist is thicker than both."

"Mizukage-sama?" Ginrei questioned.

"Where Konoha has its Will of Fire," Ryoku said in a slowly rising voice, "We, of Kirigakure no Sato, have the Will of the Winds, of the Waves, of the Waters, and of the Mists! We are the impenetrable storm, the howling gale, the constant ebb and flow of the tides! We are the heart and soul of Water, the lifegiver and lifetaker!...I founded this village all those years ago after thinking for years of a way to unite the bloodied clans of this land into one unified force to be reckoned with. I chose not to take the seat of power as it was not my right as I saw it. I wished for this village to grow from a mere drop of water into the mists that safeguard this village and this land today. From this day forward, til the day I resign, I shall lead this village to even greater heights, that no man in the Shinobi World will be able to question our right to be among the Five Great Shinobi Villages!"

At first the people did not know what to think after hearing the speech of their new Kage, and founder of the village. Then one person began to clap, followed by another, then another, the sound growing louder, until it was like waves crashing against the shore, then the shouting started, then the cheers.

"I know you've all been waiting for a week and a day for my arrival," Ryoku said, loud enough for all to hear, while still remaining at a normal volume, his voice being carried by the the gentle breeze, "I propose a week and a day long celebration, before work officially restarts."

After the announcement or decree, Ryoku began to make his way to his new office to start his first day on the job, while the rest of the village began preparations for the celebration. Accompanying him to his destination was Ginrei.

"The village doesn't have enough to spare in the budget for such a celebration," Ginrei said as they walked at a sedate pace to the office.

"I'll take care of it," Ryoku said, "I have lived long enough to actually have accumulated wealth enough for this."

"So what are you saying?" Ginrei asked.

"My first official act was to declare the celebration," Ryoku said, "My second will be to donate a great sum in the form of pearls to the village treasury."

"A great sum in the form of pearls? While I am aware that pearls are a commodity, to actually donate the sum I would think is great to the village treasury..you don't look like you have any with you," Ginrei said.

"I am a walking talking storage scroll," Ryoku said, "Think of me as a jinchuuriki of sorts, but instead fo a demon sealed within me, I have a great number of objects instead."

"No two pearls are alike," Ginrei said.

"I am aware of that," Ryoku said, "Which is why, I will share with you the secret to the pearls I will be donating."

"In your office?" Ginrei questioned.

"Just have a Chunin fetsh a bucket of spring water if he can find any, and summon the Seven," Ryoku said.

"I'll do that," Ginrei said, "Are you sure you'll be able to find your way to the office, its been years since you were last here."

"I'm sure I'll be able to find it," Ryoku reassured the elder.

'_Maybe I should have memorized the blueprints for this damnable building...I can only remember where the conference rooms are...and the bathroom.._' Ryoku mentally grumbled as he was been wandering the tower for close to two hours, still being unable to find his own office.

In his blind wandering he had decided to change out of his kage garb, and into his Keigo attire and persona, a form which few in this day and age would be able to recognize. After the third hour of wandering around, he was sure that by this time Ginrei was probably laughing his ass off at his Kage's predicament, Ryoku decided to ask for directions from the first person that passed him by.

"Excuse me," Ryoku said to a young woman, probably still a teen, she had dark red hair and green eyes, "But can you point me in the direction of the Kage office?"

"Huh?" the teen said, "Uh, sure..I'm actually headed there myself, Ginrei-sama asked me to fetch a pail of spring water for Mizukage-sama."

"So you really did get some spring water?" Ryoku asked her.

"Oh yes, since there are a lot of hot springs around the village, the water was easy to find," she said as they walked up to where the office was, "Say..are you new here?"

"Something like that.." Ryoku said, "I just can't remember where everything is since the last time I was here."

"Were you on some kind of long-term mission or something?" she asked his curious, he did look like a Jounin after all in his present outfit.

"Long-term mission? No..nothing of the sort.." Ryoku said as he followed her.

"So what are you?" she asked.

"Me?" Ryoku said, "I'm a delivery guy of sorts."

"Really?" she asked, "What are you delivering?"

"Myself," Ryoku said.

"No, seriously, what are you delivering, its the Mizukage's first day in office, and it woldn't do it just about anybody walked into his office, for all I know you could be a spy or an assassin," she said, stopping in front of a door.

"Where could he....be," Ginrei said as he opened the door only to find the Chunin he ordered to fetch the pail of water and Ryoku standing there, Ryoku actually about to knock, "You got lost didn't you."

"Hehe..funny thing that.." Ryoku said scratching the back of his neck, a little bit embarrassed by that fact, "Yeah..luckily I ran into her," he pointed at his companion.

"Well come in then," Ginrei said.

Within in the room were the Seven, each one wielding their swords, one of them being Hoshigaki Kisame.

"I had a feeling there'd be another one in this room," Ryoku said as he moved into the room.

"You trained the first batch, and we've been improving since," Kisame said, bowing to Ryoku, as did the other Seven, "Mizukage-sama."

"M-Mizukage-sama!" the Chunin exclaimed surprised at finding out that the man she had helped find, and accused of possibly being a spy or an assassin was in reality her Boss, "I..I a-apologize for saying those things I said on the way here, I didn't know...I..I..I'm sorry!" she was in a deep bow by the end of her spiel.

"Stop with the bowing, I don't mind," Ryoku said, sitting on his desk, not on the chair, but on the desk itself, "Just place the bucket in the middle of the room."

"Here?" she asked as she put the bucket down in the middle of the room.

"Perfect," Ryoku said as he hopped of his desk, and made sand appear out of nowhere, and directed the sands into the bucket of spring water, "Now watch and learn Ginrei, watch and learn."

"But there aren't any..." Ginrei began to say that there weren't any oysters in the bucket, but he was proved wrong as the sands that magically flowed into the water began to form oysters, "Those can't be..thats not possible.."

"Oh they're real alright, alive too," Ryoku said, "How else did you think I was going to have pearls appear?"

"Why don't you just create the pearls instead of the oysters?" the Chunin asked.

"Oh, so the Chunin speaks," Kisame said, taunting the Chunin, "This way is cooler."

"Had I decided to found Iwagakure no Sato, I would be creating diamonds at this moment," Ryoku mumbled, then said, "This way is more accurate, and this way the oysters can be dumped into a hot spring to breed, I'm not using up all of them for the pearls."

"But you said, a great sum," Ginrei said, "How is one bucket going to be able to produce that much?"

"Ye of little faith," Ryoku said, "Watch and learn of the great wonders that I may perform. After all, it was my fault that chakra came into existence and not that first student of mine."

"Student?" the Chunin asked, the Seven had already been briefed of what history or background was known about Ryoku.

"Yes student, I named him Takeshi, always wanting to learn new things that one did," Ryoku said, reminiscing a little bit.

"Who's Takeshi?" she asked.

"He's that guy that beat up old Juubi back in the day," Ryoku said before he dived into the bucket.

"Did he just dive into the bucket?" Miyaki Tezuka asked not believing his eyes.

"I believe...that I'll believe anything he says now.." Maeda Yon stated, "What's he doing in there?"

"Are there seals on that bucket, Mei-san?" Ginrei asked the Chunin, "Ones that would allow something like this to happen."

"None that I know of," she said, "I only picked it up from the janitor's closet."

"Cool, he's swimming in there!" Kisame said as he and the other six crowded around the bucket, peering inside, and watching as their kage swam here and there collecting what looked to be grains of sand.

"I wanna try!" Yon said, and prepared to attempt diving right in.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Ryuumusha Ryoku said from the chair behind the desk of the Mizukage, "We wouldn't want the Tower to be filled to the brim with pearls and oysters, now would we."

"Who the hell are you!" the Seven unsheathed and pointed their blades at the Ryoku that was in the chair.

"I didn't think it was possible..." Ginrei said, "Mizukage-sama, at least wear your robes when you sit there."

"Mizukage?" the Seven exclaimed in shock and disbelief.

"Hole in one boys and girl," Ryuumusha said, "One of my abilities it to be in more than one place at any given time. In this form you may refer to me as Ryuumusha, I taught the first Ryuuko Kimura."

"Ginrei-sama, when you said Living Legend..you really weren't kidding," Hoozuki Moto said to the councilman.

"Would I be correct in assuming that the Mizukage that walked into the room was not the true Mizukage, but one of these more than clones?" Yagura asked.

"That is correct," Ryuumusha said, "The one that entered was Keigo, former head of the Ryuuko clan's military branch."

"Are there any other forms that you will be taking or have taken, Mizukage-sama?" Kawa Kintaro asked, "We as your guard deserve to know these things."

"There is also Shinobu, whose garb is that of the ancient shinobi, the only part of his body that will ever be shown is a single eye," Ryuumusha said, "Shinobu was the Kage that trained the Ryuuko clan shinobi branch."

"The Ryuuko clan is Tetsu no Kuni's Daimyo's clan isn't it?" Mei asked.

"It is," Ginrei said.

"Which means that you taught the first Samurai Lord...the first Kimura..." she said, amazed.

"I did," Ryoku said standing beside the bucket, in his Kage robes, Ryuumusha having vanished from his spot on the chair, "Kisame, find a team of idle Genin, and have them take out from the bucket as many pearls as they can within the span of the rest of the day, and place them in sacks to be brought to one of the empty conference rooms."

"Hai," Kisame said as he shunshin'ed out of the office, taking the bucket with him.

"Anything else that needs my attention today?" Ryoku asked the people in the room.

"Let's go fetch his paperwork," Ginrei ordered the remaining six swordsmen and the single Chunin, "Don't leave the office until we get back Mizukage-sama."

'_Wonder how much trouble I'll get into if I drop water balloons on people.._' Ryoku wondered as he conjured some water ballons filled with colored water, opened a window, one which faced a busy street, and dropped a water balloon, making sure that there was an illusion in place to hide himself from view.

Thirty minutes later, Ginrei and company returned to the office only to find half of it filled with boxes of water balloons, and their Kage looking out the window and dropping water balloon at the unsuspecting people walking down below, some of the time he would fling the balloons a little further away to keep suspicion away from himself.

"We've got the paperwork," Ginrei said not bothering to knock and simply dumped his stack on the floor, followed by his companions.

"Hey Chunin! How much you wanna bet that Kisame freaks out if I hit him with a balloon?" Ryoku said, not really paying attention to Ginrei, the paperwork vanishing into his mindscape where the other parts of his being began finishing them.

"I...what?" Mei said, not really knowing how to answer that question.

"I bet a stick of dango he'll know it was you, Mizukage-sama!" Yagura said.

"I'll raise that stick with thirty," Yon said, "But instead of Mizukage-sama being accused, I bet you'll be the one, accused."

"I say he freaks out and blames Yagura," Ryoku said, "How 'bout it?"

"Its a bet!" Yagura and Yon agreed.

"Mizukage-sama..the paperwork?" Ginrei said.

"Don't worry, its being taken care of," Ryoku said as he andYagura searched for Kisame.

"Hey..no fair...they wont burst," Koori Kani said, as he tried to poke a balloon with the tip of his tri-pronged sword.

"He's over there!" Yagura pointed to Kisame who was directing three genin to enter the Tower to deliver the sacks that had already been filled, ten in total, they were aided by some off duty Jounins, Kisame was standing in the middle of the street.

"Three...two...one..." Ryoku counted down, "Drop!" then dropped the balloon while Yagura continued to point in Kisame's direction. Ryoku had his illusion up, while Yagura was completely visible.

"Gyah!" Kisame's voice was heard, after the first shout of surprise he cursed up a storm, then was hit in the head by a frying pan which was being carried by a passing old woman. He looked up and spotted Yagura laughing at him, "YA-GU-RA!"

"You guys owe me dango," Ryoku said, smirking, while sitting on the window's ledge.

"Hey get off from there!" Mei said, noticing Ryoku sitting where he was, and so she approached him and tried to pull him back into the room, as half of his body was out of it, "That's dangerous."

"Mei-chan, stop manhandling the Mizukage," Moto said, "You might cause him to fall."

"I'm not trying to push him you know," Mei said showing that she was pulling the Kage inside the room and not pushing him off the ledge.

"That pulling motion could be seen as pushing too ya know," Moto said.

"I'm pulling him into the room," the Chunin said, "Not pushing, pushing is like this," she demonstrated what pushing was by pushing Ryoku out the window.

"H-hey Chunin!" Moto shouted as Ryoku did fall out of the window, only for him to burst into smoke, revealing no log.

"I love Kagebushin," Ryoku said from his chair, smiling.

"You know what Mizukage-sama," Moto said.

"What?" Ryoku said.

"The chance of us Seven dying are very slim...but the chance of us retiring are greater..." Moto said, "I almost had a heart attack."

"If it wasn't treasonous, I'd kill you for that stunt," Mei said.

"I wasn't the one who pushed myself out the window," Ryoku said, smirking.

"Yeah well..." she said.

"You do know that simply threatening the Mizukage is an act of treason, right?" Ginrei rhetorically asked from the door, the other swordsmen behind him, laughing a little.

"I...crap.." Mei said, a little bit defeated, "What do I do now?"

"We'll skip the trial and move on to the sentencing," Ryoku said, "I need an assistant, you're it."

"That's it, I'm retiring," Tezuka said, "She can have my job...or I'll train her for the position, but this is to whacky for even me."

"..." - the rest of the swordsmen + Ginrei and Mei.

"Resignation accepted," Ryoku said, "But you retain the rank of Jounin..so when the next batch of genin crop up, you're to be an instructor."

"Ginrei, I have a question," Ryoku said, "There is a shinobi by the name of Momochi Zabuza, what is he?"

"Rookie Jounin, why?" Ginrei asked.

"Is he apprenticing under anyone?"

"I'll answer that," Kintaro said, "He's apprenticing under me and hopes to make it into the Seven, not necessarily to take over my position."

"He has a bright and bloody future," Ryoku said.

"What do you mean?" Kintaro asked.

"Don't think too much on it," Ryoku said, "Just know that one day, he will be great. Dismissed."

"Hai," the occupants of the room, left, but not before noticing that the boxes of balloons had been replaced by stacks of papers, and none of them knew how it had happened.

"Chunin stay," Ryoku said, "Take the stacks labeled Out, to the departments and offices that they are meant to be delivered to..."

'_Day one on the job..wonder if she's related to Kujira.._' Ryoku wondered as he continued to do the paperwork his way.


	27. Chapter 27

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter twenty-seven**_

"The Chunin Exams are to be held...here?" Ryoku asked the emissary of the Water Daimyo.

"Hai," the man replied, "We won the auction..."

"Very well," Ryoku said, "Then we shall host the first Chunin Exam open to all Shinobi villages..kindly inform the Daimyo that the Murasaki clan still has a request to complete for me."

"A request?" the man asked, "What request would that be?"

"The Daimyo should know, it was his grandfather that agreed with the request," Ryoku said, "Murasaki Kujira to be exact."

"So that must be why he wont meet with you," the man mumbled as he had wondered why the Daimyo refused to meet with the Mizukage about the upcoming Chunin Exam.

"Of course the Daimyo wouldn't want to relinquish power," Ryoku said, confirming that there really was a reason why the daimyo refused to meet with the Mizukage.

"I guess..since I have delivered my message..I shall take my leave now," the man said, and made to leave the room.

"Inform the daimyo that I know of the breach in contract, but I am willing to get the next one in line," Ryoku informed the messenger, "You may go now."

"A..Hai," the man said and left the room, and the building soon after.

A few minutes later Ryoku's assistant entered the room carrying a new stack of papers for him to look over and afix his signature and stamp of approval.

"I can't believe I still need to be your assistant," Mei said as she put down the stack of papers which promptly vanished as would most paperwork do once they entered the office, only the finished ones were visible on the floor and not even of Ryoku's desk, "I'm a Jounin for crying out loud."

"Do you want me to demote you to Chunin?" Ryoku asked, not looking up from a report he was actually reading.

"Don't be so hasty boss," she said, "I didn't mean it like that."

"Gather the Jounin, Anbu, Hunter, and Chunin commanders," Ryoku ordered still not bothering to look up, "I shall meet with them in conference room A, in thirty minutes."

"Oh? What happened?" she asked him, "Kaminari trying to covertly attack us again?"

"Just fetch them," Ryoku said, "Don't alert the rest of the village, I just need to meet with them, and no you cannot listen in on the mission."

"Aww..c'mon, why not?" she said.

"Because you can't follow simply orders," he said, and pushed her out of the room with his magic, one of those little tricks that he could do that the elites were aware of, but couldn't figure out how he could do, as he refused to explain how he managed to do anything.

"Tora," Ryoku said, calling his hidden companion in the office, "I forgot to have her fetch Kisame, be a dear and fetch him for me."

The Anbu did not bother verbally replying but simply left in a swirl of mist, and returned moments later followed by Kisame. Only a few individuals were actually allowed to teleport in any form into the office of the Kage, it was a precautionary measure, one which was very effective in the past against any would be assassins.

"You needed me Mizukage-sama?" Kisame asked after straightening up.

"Head over to conference room A, and bring a bucket of water," Ryoku instructed.

"You're not going to dive into it again are you?" Kisame asked.

"I'm throwing Mei into it if she doesn't leave the room," Ryoku stated.

"She complained again, didn't she?" Kisame questioned, not leaving the room, but relaxing his posture.

"She does at least once a week," Ryoku stated, "You were dismissed a while ago, Kisame, so leave or I'm dumping into my tea cup..again."

"Leaving, leaving!" Kisame said a little panicked as he left the room in a hurry.

"Tora," Ryoku said, "I will meet you there, I suppose."

"Maybe you should start allowing her to go on missions out of the village now, Mizukage-sama," Tori said, appearing in front of his Kage.

"Oh, I will...she's just so fun to torture," Ryoku said.

"She's the only swordswoman of the Seven," Tora said, "Its kind of strange that you don't allow her to leave.."

"Yes, yes," Ryoku said, "I intend to send her out soon, you too."

"Are you getting tired of me already Mizukage-sama?" Tora asked in jest.

"If I am, I'd send you to try and assassinate my fellow in the position of Yondaime," Ryoku said.

"Ah..forgot about that mission...hehe..my apologies Mizukage-sama," Tora said, "I shall head on over to the Jounin Bar...lest she miss me..are you sure you'll be alright without a protective detail?"

"Whose ass did I kick in the defense of Mizu no Kuni?" Ryoku asked, semi-rhetorically.

"Ah..yea..forgot about that, must've slipped my mind," Tora said then left in a swirl of mist..again.

With five minutes left to go before Ryoku was sure that his commanders would arrive in the conference room, he stood from his seat, fetched his hat, and phased through the floor and walls as he made his way to the room for the meeting. When he got there, Kisame was already threatening Mei with the bucket of water, a threat which the commanders save for Tora the Chunin commander could not understand what was so bad about a bucket of water.

"C'mon Kisame, I'm one of the Seven too ya know, I can stay, just hide me or something," Mei tried to reason with Kisame, curiosity killed the cat, but she was no cat.

Before Kisame could threaten her with the bucket again, Ryoku dropped down from the ceiling, grabbed Mei by the back of her vest and dumped her head first into the bucket, her whole body following the head into the bucket. He then formed a shadow clone and had it carry the bucket to the nearest river to pour the contents out in it.

"How in the world?" Shigeru Mogatari, Jounin commander, asked, "Did he just..?"

"No he did not kill the jounin," Kisame answered, "And just so you know, that's what's so bad about a bucket of water."

"Push what I just performed out of your minds for the moment," Ryoku said, "I was informed earlier that Kiri will be hosting the First Chunin Exams for the whole of the Shinobi World.."

"Seriously?" Mogatari asked, "I thought the planning for that was still in the works..."

"What would you have us do, Mizukage-sama?" Ootori Meizu, Anbu commander, asked.

"The exams will begin in three months," Ryoku stated, "We have until then to prepare the village, fill in any holes in security, and make sure that our village is presentable to the outside world."

"What will this exam consist of?" Minami Tora, Tora's identity behind the mask as well as Chunin commander, asked.

"What will the roles of the ranks be?" Shun Tamago, Hunter-nin commander, asked.

"Kisame," Ryoku said, "Will you be asking anything?"

"No, I'm good, I'll just listen," Kisame said.

"Alright then," Ryoku said, "Missions outside of the village are suspended for all shinobi under Anbu rank."

"Then would I be correct in assuming that Anbu will be taking care of all those missions?" Meizu asked.

"All missions that include going beyond the village perimeter will be performed by Anbu, no matter the rank of the mission," Ryoku said, "Including _That_ D-rank mission."

"But that's insane!" Meizu complained, "That _Thing_ should be place in the Book! S-class at least."

"Unless Konoha lists that damnable cat in their version of the Book, I'm not listing that _thing_ in ours," Ryoku said, "Moving on...Jounin will be taking charge of security and proctoring of the exams, from facilitators to referees in the third part."

"Referees? There is a tournament then?" Kisame asked, "Can I be a proctor? I'm technically a Jounin too."

"We'll talk later Kisame," Mogatari said.

"Hunter-nin will be in charge of tending to the needs of the guests and visitors during the event," Ryoku said, "Tamago, your people are used to such fast paced things, good luck. Your tasks will include reservations, bodyguard duty, escort, and tours. This is the first time in the history of our village that we will be permitting outsiders of many kinds entrance."

"I and my corps will do our best with the task assigned to us," Tamago said firmly.

"Then you best leave Tamago and begin preparations as you are also in charge of keeping track of the influx of persons," Ryoku said dismissing that one commander.

"Hai," Tamago said, then left in a swirl of mists heading for the Hunter-nin headquarters.

"Chunin will be manning the administration buildings as per usual..while helping out during the first and second parts of the exam," Ryoku said.

"What are the first and second parts of the exams anyway?" Kisame asked, "The third one's obviously a tournament."

"The first part will test the ability of the genin to gather intelligence," Ryoku said, "I shall leave it up to you, Tora, to think up the actual test, just remember to leave a detailed report on your plans on my desk by the end of the week."

"Hai, Mizukage-sama," Tora said.

"The second exam must be played like capture the flag, a mission like test, one which should be able to halve the number of teams competing the exams," Ryoku said, "Weed out the worthless from the worthy."

"Securing a pair of secret documents or something like that...?" Mogatari asked.

"Something like that, I'll leave you to figure somethng out, as well as reserving the location for the test," Ryoku said.

"I know for a fact that the Hoozuki clan have a killer survival training ground," Kisame said, "They're usually the only one's crazy enough to use the place..since..there are things in there.."

"I know what you mean," Ryoku said, "Its the perfect place for such an exam, wouldn't you say so Mogatari?"

"Eh..fine I guess," he said, "But what about the potential for death in that part of the exam?"

"Have the legal department write up some consent forms or something like that that makes us not responsible for any deaths that occur during the exams," Ryoku said, "Its our best bet...And one more thing, for the first exam, there should also be some form of decision making thing at the end."

"I'll remember that," Mogatari said.

"One question," Meizu said.

"Yes?"

"Will our daimyo be attending the event?"

"He will," Ryoku said, "Even if I have to kidnap him myself."

"You can really hold a grudge, Mizukage-sama," Tora said amusedly, "If he doesn't I'm sure you'll be able to pull him out of your hat."

"Kisame," Ryoku said, "Fetch another bucket of water."

"Now?" Kisame asked.

"H-Hey, don't be so hasty Mizukage-sama! I'll be good! I'll be good!" Tora pleaded.

"You are forgiven," Ryoku said, "I think that is all that I felt I needed to tell you...Ah..Mogatari, inform all the Jounin senseis that the registration forms for the exams will be made available a month before the exams and the deadline for submission of registration forms will be a week before the exam. Inform them that all three genin must compete else none of them will be able to compete."

"All or nothing, gotcha," Mogatari said.

"Hopefully, I haven't forgotten anything," Ryoku said, "If I have missed anything..or if you have questions, feel free to...scratch that..just have Mei ask me..if she is unavailable..Kisame should suffice."

"Me? Why me?" Kisame asked.

"You are captain of the Seven," Ryoku said, "Meizu, missions for Anbu will begin two months before the event, Mogatari make sure all shinobi have returned by then, excluding our infiltrators, everyone under Anbu must be present and accounted for. A list of missing personnel should be submitted to me."

"Hai," the commanders said and left the room, walking out.

"Kisame..I think its time we try something different," Ryoku said, "I require three genin teams, meet me by training ground thirty-five.."

"A....OK," Kisame said, deciding against asking what for.

"So Mizukage-sama, what are we going to be doing here?" Kisame asked, the three genin teams standing behind the captain of the Seven.

"We're going swimming," Ryoku said, "There is something in this lake, that we can't have...moving around while _that _happens."

"Something? Care to elaborate oh great and fearless leader," Kisame asked, taunting a little.

"I'm glad you asked," Ryoku said happily, "We're hunting the sleeping Rokubi."

"Rokubi..Rokubi...Roku...NANI?" Kisame shouted, then pointed his blade at his kage, "You mean to tell me there's a bijuu sleeping in this lake!"

"Yup," Ryoku said gleefully, "You thirteen are in charge of waking it up."

"B-But we'd be endangering the village if we did that!" Kisame shouted.

"Never took you for the worrying sort," Ryoku told Kisame, "Just wake the thing up and run or stay and watch me cut the thing to pieces."

"You're not kidding are you," Kisame said, the genin, rookies all, were quaking in their boots.

'_There is no way Mizukage-sama is serious.._' the genin were thinking.

"You could have at least allowed us to warn our families first!" Kisame shouted as Ryoku made his way to the center of the lake.

"Oh fine," Ryoku shouted, "I'll do all the work."

"It was nice knowing you," Kisame said to his companions, "We better begin running now."

Kisame and company were only able to make a few steps before Ryoku slammed a fist on the surface of the lake, resulting ripples that reminded him of a gong for some reason appeared on the formerly calm surface of the lake. Seconds later there was an enormous explosion of water as the surface of the lake broke revealing the mighty form of the six tailed slug, its tails waving around like tentacles, all trying to smash or crush Ryoku who simply weaved in and out of the beast's attacks.

What the beast and the spectators didn't know was that while Ryoku weaved in and out of attacks he was also crisscrossing wires all over the beast, waiting for the right time to pull and cut the thing to pieces. It was a daunting task, one where no one but the kage would be able to accomplish such a feat.

Due to the beast's immense size, it was not hard to imagine how the rest of the village responded upon seeing it, and feeling its oppressive chakra. All able bodied shinobi rushed to the scene, and met up with Kisame who was the only one that dared move closer to the lake's edge.

"Is he insane!" Mei exclaimed, "Kage or not, he shouldn't have to face something like that on his own."

"Oh Mei-chan, I didn't know you cared," Keigo said appearing beside her and acting dramatically.

"You..but..that.." Mei said, as she was surprised by his appearance, though nothing that Ryoku did should have been able to surprise her at that point.

"Go Rokubi!" Ryuumusha shouted, suddenly appearing on Mei's other side, "Crush him!"

"Aren't you cheering on the wrong entity, Ryuumusha-sama?" Yagura asked as he stood ready to do battle with the beast.

"Someone's gotta cheer for the beast," Ryuumusha said, continuing to cheer not really caring about the odd looks he was receiving from the rest of the Kiri-nin, "Don't you have any powers! Use them!"

"If you think about it, the thing is quite pathetic," Kisame said, "One would think that a bijuu could do more than simply flail its tails around in frustration."

It was like watching a movie, as soon as Ryuumusha began cheering on the Rokubi, the beast finally truly woke up from its slumber. It released a powerful screech which forced the shinobi forces to cover their ears from its high pitch. Ryoku didn't mind as much as he was the one to deliver a resounding kick to its lower jaw shutting it up, while forcing it to sever its own tongue. How it had a tongue Ryoku didn't care to ponder on and simply continued to secretly tie it up with his special wire.

He vanished suddenly from view and the spectators didn't know whether or not he had finally been hit, was underwater, on the other side of the beast, or if anything had happened to him. The ones closest to his clones, for that was more or less what the Ryuuko-trio were, Shinobu having appeared as well, were startled when the three exploded into smoke. They did not simply vanish as they usually do.

Moments of tense waiting later, the spectators watched as the beast looked like it was going to puke, which it did, and Ryoku came flying out of its mouth. He skid across the surface of the very much disturbed lake, and finally stopped when his body bashed against the sandy shore. When he had disappeared from view and his clones had burst into smoke, he had actually been pulled into the thing's mouth and was swallowed, its tongue had grown back at an incredible rate and was the tool used to reel him into the jaws of death. He was holding the end of his wire which if pulled with just the right strength and a bit of distance would split the beast into seven pieces, six tails and the body. Each of its tails storing its power.

After standing up and dusting himself off, Ryoku pulled out a bottle that looked like a beer bottle. It was butterbeer, where and when he had the time to get one before his trip would remain a mystery to him, as he couldn't really remember, but all that mattered was that he had a bottle of butterbeer, and more than likely had more than just that one bottle. He uncapped the bottle, downed its contents then slipped the bottle back into his mindscape where he still kept a heck of a lot of things.

"Kisame, hold this," Ryoku said as he handed over the end of the wire to Kisame, "When I give the signal, I want you to pul that thing as hard as you can. Understand?"

In the background the beast grew enraged as its foe was not paying attention to it. It had finally recognized the feel of its foe, a feeling it had felt once before. There was a reason why it was a slug after all.

When the chakra of the Juubi had been split up by the Rikudou Sennin, the part that became the Rokubi was the part of the beast that had received the most damage from Ryoku during the battle that the thing was sealed within Takeshi. By being the most beat up part of the beast, it ended up as a slug which was like a sore muscle or a bruise, it was even blue enough to look like a bruise, the slime coating could be seen as pus that formed.

By remembering who Ryoku was, it felt phantom pain wrack its entire body, as well as a rage that was felt by all of Kiri, a bloodlust so great that all shinobi below Jounin were knocked unconscious by its strength. Even the Jounin and Anbu were visibly affected by its intensity.

"Relax you lot," Ryoku said in a confident voice, "While I'm around the only thing you have to fear is my releasing such Killing Intent. I wont let it hurt any of you..ok..maybe Kisame."

"What? Why'd you single me out!" Kisame shouted as he snapped out of the trance the killing had sent even he, a member of one of the bloodiest in history of Kiri clans.

"Well at least that got you out of your funk," Ryoku said, the other shinobi on the shore that were still conscious were also smacked out of their trances by Ryoku's words, especially the bit about Kisame.

The intensity of the killing intent increased after that, there was even some of the demonic chakra mixed into it this time, adding a bit of strength. While the shinobi were still affected, their belief in their kage was great enough for them to not piss in their pants, but some of them still cowered in fear, one Chunin actually regained consciousness long enough to feel the sheer strength of it and passed out after saying "Shit."

The beast followed up the supposedly mental attack by sending a dense cloud of poison gas in the direction of Ryoku. He responded to this attack by sneezing, sending the gas hurtling back in the direction of its origin, which didn't affect the beast at all, it just reabsorbed the gas into its slimy exterior.

"For some reason...the weakest and the strongest seem to be the only ones worth..fighting.." Ryoku muttered under his breath, only Mei who was used to his muttering, mumbling, and whispering managed to pick up what he had said.

"Be happy that you get to fight the Rokubi! There aren't any Ichibis or Kyuubis around right now!" Mei shouted, earning incredulous looks from the shinobi around her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ryoku said waving off her comment, "Kisame, when I give the signal, pull."

He simply vanished after leaving that last reminder, and reappeared above the beast and delivered a visibly powerful drop kick on its head, sending the beast partially under water. The drop kick was visibly powerful since he had coated his whole leg with power, with magic, and with the elements. His subordinates could have sworn they heard the screeching of a thousand screeching birds as the kick was delivered. At the moment that the beast's head smacked down with the water's surface, there was a shockwave felt as far away as the borders of Mizu no Kuni.

"Why the heck did he found OUR village, when he can do that?" a random Kaguya asked, the attacked looked like something a Kumo-nin or a Konoha-nin would perform, the Konoha-nin would also be shouting about the power of youth.

"Dear Kami! That was powerful!" a random Jounin shouted after recovering from the feeling of the shockwave.

"Kisame! NOW!" Ryoku shouted as he summoned as many Boss Summons as he could think of and had then all dogpiled the bijuu as Kisame yanked the wire. The Bijuu was not only squished but also split into the seven pieces that Ryoku wanted the thing to be split into.

"SENSEI!" the summons shouted after removing each other from the pile, then dogpiled on their sensei to the shock and dismay of the kiri-nin. It was something that one just didn't see everyday.

Meizu was among the visibly shaken and shocked nin as he looked on as the boss of his contract slammed an oyster down on the head of the Whale Boss. The Murasaki clan was the only Daimyo class clan that had a summon contract, not counting Tetsu no Kuni's Ryuuko as they were warriors to the bone, and the whales just happened to be their summons. The actions of Kawauso Meizu could be viewed as an act of treason against the Mizu Daimyo. It was at the time of the revelation that the Kiri-nin noticed that Gamabunta of the Gama/Toad clan had round house kicked the Boss of the Bee summon clan. On top of the lake the summons were battling with one another just to get the attention of their sensei, Ryoku, who teleported to shore, and was simply laughing at the antics at his former students, who were no longer the children they had once been.

"A-ano...Mizukage-sama.." Kaguya Shiki nervously said as he approached his laughing kage, "I-Is everything..alright now?"

"Oh, yes, everything's fine," Ryoku said, "I've collected the thing's pieces. Since you asked, you get to hide the scroll containing the body," Ryoku then handed the scroll containing the body of the Rokubi to the Kaguya.

"H-Hai, Mizukage-sama," Shiki said before leaving in a swirl of shredded bones to where the Kaguya usually kept their secrets, which was the perfect place to hide something of such importance.

"Mizukage-sama..what about the other parts..we saw seven parts.." a Jounin asked.

"Meizu!" Ryoku shouted.

"Hai!" Meizu said after tumbling into the lake after running from somewhere in the crowd.

"Have the tails scattered to the four winds," Ryoku instructed his Anbu commander, handing him the storage scroll that contained the scrolls containing the six tails of the beast, "Make sure that there are protections or protectors in place just in case there is someone stupid enough to try and use the power within the scrolls."

"Just me?" the Anbu asked, a bit idiotically.

"Moto, hit him," Hoozuki Moto, slammed the flat of his blade on Meizu's head, giving the man a headache and a bump on the head. Yuki Onna, the head of the Yuki clan, handed him some ice to place on the bump. Her clan being the wielders of an advanced ice manipulation bloodline.

"Arigato," he said to her, they had dated at one point in time, but it didn't work out.

"Since there really isn't a crisis.." Ryoku said standing up to his full height, his Hat appearing on his head, as it had fallen off when the beast swallowed him, "Don't you all have anything better to do than stand there gawking! We've got a village to run people!"

"H-Hai Mizukage-sama!" the Kiri-nin shouted as they scooped up their still unconscious comrades and made for the village proper to continue their duties and drop off the unconscious at their homes, hospital or in the middle of one of the hot springs just for fun.

As Ryoku, his commanders, assistant, and the Seven, walked back to the village proper, Mogatari remembered something which had been bugging him since the meeting ended.

"Ano..Mizukage-sama," Mogatari said, "I think we may have a problem.."

"What is it?" Ryoku said.

"Since we'll be hosting the Exams...and there are sure to be many guests..where are we going to put them?" he asked, Kiri had never really been a vacation spot due to security reasons as well as its location and the wars that wracked the world, "We may have some inns, but nothing to accomodate the numbers which are to be expected at such a historical event."

"Bloodline capital of the world, and we don't have anyone with the abilities of the Senju.." Tora grumbled.

"Who said, we don't," Ryoku said as he continued walking as the rest of the group ground to a halt at his passing comment.

"Did he just say what I think he just said?" Yagura asked.

"Shouldn't there be ringing in my ears.." Mei said, thinking that she might have been imagining things.

"There's no way..." Kani said, "There's just no way.."

Ryoku didn't bother to wait for them as he teleported himself back to his office to wait for them there, there was still some paperwork that needed to be completed after all. He took his job seriously, unlike a few other Kage out in the world.

"But he was so..I dunno..careless about it.." Kintaro said, "Like it was nothing special.."

"Last one to his office gets bucket time!" Tora shouted suddenly already sprinting in the direction of the Mizukage Tower.

"He's not serious is he?" Tamago asked..only to find that Kisame and Mei were already running.

"See ya Tamagomaki!" Yon shouted as he leapt after the trio

"Don't call me that!" Tamago shouted as he ran after the rest of the pack who had already left him in the dust, but he wasn't the Hunter-nin commander for nothing and caught up with them.

Sometime after the last of them entered the village proper, someone thought that it would be a good idea to send out some jutsu to slow down the rest of the pack, which started something could be compared with a food fight or a prank war, as the first jutsu, while it had hit one of its targets, had also hit a passing Genin team, which irritated the already tired genin, and everything became like dominoes.

At the end of the day, the commanders, the Seven, and Mei found themselves in buckets in Ryoku's office, while the rest of the shinobi forces that were present within the walls of the village were ordered to clean up the mess.

For a whole week everything that would normally be considered an E to D rank mission, and one C rank, was performed for free by all the present ranks of ninja in the village, including Ryoku – except he enjoyed it. Ryoku gave himself guard duty, which caused many of the returning nin to act in the most professional manner they could, as they feared the consequences of acting otherwise as they were met with their own Kage at the gate, and witnessed Anbu repairing the village gate, not from any kind of attack but from a massive amount of toilet paper getting stuck in the hinges.

Seeing Genin running around performing E and D rank missions was one thing, but watching hunter-nin running after pets, and children was something else entirely. The village was in chaos, rather the military part was, the civilian part didn't really mind the chaos. The only members of the military that were not affected were the medic-nins.

Those medic-nins were really scary when they felt like it. After the first paintball hit the emergency room door, the medic-nins went into battle-mode, and used their perfect chakra control to beat the living out of the Anbu that had missed his target, they healed him afterward, but after watching a trainee deal the damage, the rest of the forces steered clear of the hospital and all manner of clinic or health service structure.

It was on the third day of clean up when a group of returning Jounin were met with the most unnatural sight they thought they would ever get to see in their lifetimes.

Their mission was to escort the Daimyo to inspect the village as well as to speak with the Mizukage. As soon as they spotted who exactly it was waiting at the guard shed by the gate, they grew weary of their surroundings and theirselves, a change which the Daimyo noticed as did his own personal guards. He didn't know what was wrong until he caught a glimpse of the Mizukage hat that the guard at the gate was wearing, then he noticed the robes. His clan had done this man a diservice as well as cheated him in a way, the one that his clan had promised to the man had already married. The Murasaki clan had lost a lot of honor with that one action, and the Daimyo actually feared his meeting with the Mizukage because of it. Being forced to meet the man from the get-go was a nightmare come to life. The only thing he believed he could do was apologize profusely and hope that he was granted a swift death. Swift and hopefully painless. There was also the matter that his granddaughter was unaware of their connection.

The Jounin, and Anbu that were still unable to get the toilet paper out, bore witness to the Daimyo, the Lord of the Land of Water, himself kowtowing in front of an amused Yondaime Mizukage. It was common knowledge for a Kage to be below the daimyo, but for a daimyo to bow to a kage was something that only happened in fantasy.

"Daimyo-sama!" the guards shouted as they drew their blades and prepared to attack Ryoku as they thought he had used a genjutsu on their lord.

"Stop!" the daimyo ordered them to stop before they made his life even more of a living hell than it already was, "You bow too!"

"There is a bucket in my office with Kisame in it," Ryoku said to the Jounin, after a short while, "Fetch it and the one with Yagura."

"H-hai!" the Jounin cell said and ran for the tower, forgetting that they could teleport short distance to make things faster.

When the Jounin finally returned, and the area was cordoned off so that the Daimyo wouldn't lose face in front of the regular citizens and so that unnecessary questions did not arise, Ryoku pulled out the two of the Seven out of the buckets. It made the Daimyo fear for his future a whole lot more, the jounins who had never seen such a thing happen in their lives grew to fear and respect their leader even more. The guards of the daimyo simply crapped their pants in fear. Ryoku made sure to order the two of the Seven to help in cleaning up the walls before dismissing them.

"Daimyo-dono, I believe that you've bowed enough," Ryoku said, "I'm not going to kill you you know. I know for a fact that the marriage was out of love and not some political stunt you pulled. So I'll forgive your clan for that."

"Ah...a-arigato for that.." the Daimyo said, after standing back up.

"Have a seat," Ryoku said, having a wooden chair grow out of the ground, then when the Daimyo had gotten over his shock and had sat down, Ryoku continued speaking, "I'll take your granddaughter."

"Fine by me," the Daimyo, whose name was not surprisingly Kujira as well, said a little bit resigned, but an idea popped into his head, one that would ensure the stability and power of his nation for generations to come, "But I have a request of my own."

"I have a feeling that I know what you're going to request, and I have no problems with it, and will agree to it," Ryoku said, "But I have a condition."

"Alright, I'll hear this condition," the Daimyo said.

"You don't step down, until I say so," Ryoku said.

"And what if I die, before you say I can step down?" Kujira asked.

"That won't happen," Ryoku said, "And when I say it wont happen, it wont happen, or are you not going to trust me?"

"Fine, I concede defeat," Kujira said, "Now that that's over and done with, how are the preparations for the Exams coming along?"

"It would have been going well, if it wasn't for the civil war three days ago," Ryoku said.

"Civil war? This is the first time I've heard of this," Kujira said, "Explain, please."

"Well..I should really just call it civil unrest," Ryoku said, "Some of my ninja thought it would be a good idea to use jutsu in the village after I engaged the Rokubi and turned the thing into minced meat.."

"R-Rokubi? As in the Bijuu?"

"Do you know of any other Rokubi?" Ryoku asked, rhetorically.

"Well..no..but the Bijuu attacked?"

"Sort of," Ryoku said shrugging, "I woke it up to seal it away so that it wouldn't cause any problems during the exam."

"Can I step down now?" Kujira asked.

"No," Ryoku said, "The one attack escalated into something like a village wide food fight. Which is why those Anbu are cleaning up the gate, that's toilet paper and not some form of explosive."

"Why did you say that it was a Civil War?"

"It sounds cooler than a massive prank war gone sour," Ryoku said.

"I guess it does," Kujira said.

"You can also announce to the world that one of the reasons why the mists will have a certain smell and a reddish tinge is that civil war," Ryoku said.

"What smell and tinge?"

"I have a plan that will make us look a little bit more powerful and ruthless, it shall be implemented in a week or two," Ryoku said, "Foreigners are only allowed to use certain sanctioned routes, this will work to our advantage, not even the spies from the other nations have been able to infiltrate our beloved nation. So no one will suspect a thing. We are the Land of Water as well as being known for silent fighting, even your army can boast such a feat."

"You do have a point.." Kujira said, there was no use in arguing with this Kage, "Back to the preparaitions, are there any problems that the capital can help with? Funds, materials, anything?"

"Just one thing," Ryoku said.

"What?"

"Hotel Management training staff," Ryoku said, "We don't really have any high end hotels at the moment, but we will in a few days time, we just need people to train the future staff."

"I can have some people sent over next month..hopefully that's enough time," the Daimyo said.

"It should be," Ryoku said.

"Then you have begun constructing the hotels? But don't those things take some time to be built?" Kujira asked.

"Not at all, not at all, not when the one building them is the Kage himself," Ryoku said, "One such as I built the village..although I did have some help that time, but most of it was by my doing. Would you like to witness the construction of where you will be staying?"

"I have the time, so why not," Kujira said, "May my granddaughter accompany us? I haven't seen her or her mother in a long time."

"Jounin, man the gate," Ryoku said, "Follow me Kujira-san, you guards," he was speaking with the guards of the daimyo, "might want to stay with the Jounin."

Ryoku lead the daimyo on what seemed to be a wild goose chase, as they walked hither and tither, the daimyo did not bother asking questions as he really didn't know how to get to the tower, even though it seemed to be located opposite to the gate, but the streets were like a maze to outsiders without a guide. Ryoku was actually leading his companion in somewhat circles as he was making sure to avoid civilians and shinobi alike as he didn't want to be disturbed. While he may have had the power to get to the tower faster, walking was all the more relaxing of things to be done. It also made him feel more normal, not that he had anything against what he was.

Murasaki Kujira (the second) didn't mind walking all that much as it gave him a chance to actually almost freely look around his land's hidden village. The village itself was more like a city, and it seemed as if it was actually bigger than the capital of Mizu no Kuni, his home. The buildings followed the same general structure, but there were some buildings that seemed to be out of place in some areas, these were probably later addtions to the village proper itself, as the village had been built to accomodate the population of all the bloodline clans of the Land of Water at the time of the village's founding. It was obvious that with the passage of time, more living space, quarters, and other kinds of structures would be needed to be added.

When they passed the hospital, or the medical district as it was referred to as, he was surprised to find how the place was layouted. It resembled a miniature fortress, giving security to the main structure being the hospital. In times of peace the district was easy to access, but it seemed that should ever an invasion occur, the district could easily be turned into one of the most fortified places in the whole village. What he didn't know was that Ryoku had made it so that should the village be breached and the military truly unable to retake the whole of the village, the Kage or the Rank Commanders had the ability to flood the whole village. It wasn't a personal ability they possessed, merely the ability to make it so that the village filled with water. The entrances and walls around the village had self-repairing spells weaved into them, Ryoku didn't tell anyone how they worked, only that they would repair themselves automatically and seal the whole village turning it into a basin that would be filled with water, up to the top of the walls, but wouldn't over flow. Only key locations in the village would be unaffected by the water, the Mizukage Tower, the Library, the Archive Building, the Evacuation centers and bunkers, and the Hospital. Each of those structures would gain a solid and protective barrier separating them from damage, and the elements. All these were in place as a last minute defense against an invasionary force. But the invaders would have to truly be great, at least two whole Great Shinobi Villages in power would need to attack with all their might to get the Kage or his commanders to even think of using that.

While the Kage and commanders didn't share that inforamtion with the public, Ryoku had made sure to leave Mejin with a kind of guidebook, in it he made sure to mention that swimming lessons be mandatory to all village citizens. They lived in the Land of Water after all, and it would be a little bit embarrassing if it was found out that someone from there, didn't know how to citizens were also made to undergo quaterly tests on how long they could swim for, against how strong a current, how deep they could dive, and how long they could hold their breath underwater, all without the aid of chakra.

To get rid of all the water was a simple task as all the Kage or commanders would need to do was to flush the water down the drain, almost literally like a toilet. The sewer system of the village was regularly cleaned in order for the sewer tunnels to be able to be used by the shinobi as an alternate route for travel. There were two clans dedicated to waste disposal as their bloodlines had something to do with that. One dealt with liquid waste, while the other dealt with solid waste. Converting them into chakra..somehow. The two clans' jutsu also dealt with either making something squeaky clean or making that something vanish entirely, but the vanishing entirely thing was considered kinjutsu by the clan, forbidden as such techniques could be used to vanish people. Only the clan heads, elders, and Ryoku knew the kinjutsus, as they were also how the clan dealt with deserters, traitors, missing-nin, nuke-nin.

When the duo finally reached Ryoku's office in the Kage Tower, Kujira had realized that he had been lead to a complete tour of the village by the Kage himself. It was a very roundabout way of doing things, and he didn't feel tired from all that walking, but chose not to comment on it or ask Ryoku about how such a thing were possible, it was safer for him and anyone else that could be listening in if he refrained from asking such a thing.

Kujira was scared out of his life, experiencing a ghost moment for a second or two, when Ryoku pulled out the people who were still in the buckets which littered the room, including Mei. All of them were soaking wet unlike the ones that had been brought to the gate.

"Everyone that is not a Terumii or a Murasaki, leave the office and help out the other shinobi that are running around the village," Ryoku ordered his shinobi, after they had left, only Mei, Kujira, and Ryoku were left in the office.

"Mei-chan," Kujira said, greeting his granddaughter, "It has been a long time since I've seen you."

"Uh..Daimyo-sama..I don't know what you mean by that," Mei said.

"Mei, fetch your mother," Ryoku said, "And meet us at the entertainment district, I'll be contructing the hotels there."

"But there isn't any space there for such structures," she said.

"There will be," Ryoku said.

"You're not going to demolish some of the existing establishments are you?" she asked.

"Do you really have to ask such questions?" Ryoku asked.

"Well, yes," she said, "You know, just because you built seventy-five percent of the structures in the village doesn't mean you can simply demolish any of the structures you like. Think of the people that use those structures for their businesses, work, their livelihoods, and such."

"I wont be demolishing anything," Ryoku said, "There is a reason why the geographicial maps at the capital can't seem to be accurate when it comes to the land where Kirigakure no Sato stands."

"Let me guess," she said, "You expect me to believe that you are the reason."

"So you'll believe that I trained the Rikudou Sennin, but find it hard to believe that I am the reason why the maps are inaccurate?" he asked, "You know what, don't answer that, just go fetch your mother, and meet us there, there will be a few empty spces between buildings, and in some other places."

A few minutes later, Mei and her mother found themselves in the entertainment district, where the inns and entertainment establishments like the casinos, bars, and the like were located. They, like the many people there, were dumbstruck by finding there to be empty lots, as well as some streets having widened a little bit in some places, as well as other things and spaces appearing.

'_What in the world?_' and '_How in the world?_' were the dominant thoughts of all that managed to stumble upon the place.

Since it was still an order, Mei and her mother had to move through the district searching for the Mizukage and the Daimyo, Mei hadn't informed her mother about who they were meeting. She simply dragged her mother away from her knitting of all things, and said that it was an order from one of her superiors. When she said superiors, it could have been anyone other than Ryoku, as she referred to Ryoku as that asshole at work. She didn't know that Ryoku was aware of that little nickname, but he didn't mind.

She found him and the daimyo in the very center of the district, the daimyo sitting on a wooden chair in the middle of the street, complete with umbrella to keep him in the shade, while Ryoku on the other hand was only wearing pants. In each hand he held his Daggers of Time, they were pointed down.

"We're here," Mei announced as she and her mother approached the two men, her mother acting a little, to Mei, different compared to her usual self. Mei simply thought that it was due to nervousness to meeting two powerful men.

Shinobu appeared on the left side of the Daimyo, and slammed a closed fist on the ground, and from the spot two wooden chairs sprung up, as if by magic, technically by magic. The daimyo then instructed them to have a seat and watch what very few could claim to do and actually do.

Ryoku dropped his blades, and once each pierced the ground, he shimered, then disappeared, but there was still a shadow of his body on the ground, even though he did not appear to be there. Then the shadow grew.

They were in the middle of the district, but the street itself looked to have been widened or have grown for some reason. Mei couldn't figure out how it was possible, and it definitely was no genjutsu. She had checked.

The shadow grew and grew in size, in width, and in length. It also grew in detail, shifting from the form of a shadow of a man to the form of a shadow of what looked to be a building with some different designs of some sort, which could be seen from the edges of the shadow. When the shadow had finally stopped growing, it changed from a mere shadow to something else entirely. From out of what was thought to be a shadow, an obsidian like block shot out, it was around the same height as the Mizukage Tower.

While the onlookers didn't know what was happening, or where the Kage had gone, they continued to look on just in case it wasn't over yet and so that they didn't miss anything. Since they were making sure, Ryoku didn't disappoint as the structure suddenly exploded into a set number of smaller shadows, shadow clones, these ones actual shadows on the ground. The black structure then began changing, morphing into something else. While it morphed, the shadows that had separated from it slithered over to the other opened and widened spaces in the district, and from those shadows, which also expanded, blocks of the obsidian-like structures formed. But instead of exploding into more shadow clones on the ground, they began to instantly go under the same transformation as the original one.

From a solid block of obsidian like material, features began to form on the shell, the outer visible part of the block. First they looked like dents, and as time wore on, seconds and minutes passing by, the blocks started resembling life sized models of buildings, each one different in design. Some of the onlookers thought that that was it, that they would serve as the skeletal guides for the actual structures. Some thought that the that was it. But there were those that were expecting more to happen. Ryoku once again did not disappoint.

Some of the shinobi, those that were looking on and taking a break from their assigned duties, were the first ones to notice the latest happening, the latest thing to happen around these lifesized models. Plants, vines, tree branches, began to sprout around the models, these skeletons of what would soon become hotels, and other additional establishments. The second set of materials that seemed to slither out of the ground were the gifts of the earth, the non-edible kind, minerals and metals. Some of which transformed on the way to their respective places. Ryoku was molding, forging, transforming, buildings from out of shadow, the shadow being the form he had chosen for his magic to take, while his powers from the First Seed took the magic required directly from the shadows.

It took close to an hour for the whole process to take place, and once all the shadowy structures were gone, in their places stood the hotels, motels, and additional establishments that Ryoku had built, formed, and transformed.

Senju Hashirama could only use Mokuton, sure he could form structures made out of wood, but Ryoku had just displayed the ability to not only build structures out of wood, but also out of minerals, metals, and even plastic, and glass. He did after all hold the key which unlocked chakra in the first place, unlocked the potential of the people of the world to do the things they did today.

"Ah, that was refreshing," Ryoku said as he once again appeared on the spot he had been standing before vanishing to be replaced by his shadow. He stood infront of not a hotel, but an office building, the building which would serve as the headquarters of the entertainment districts's management and administration staff. From inspectors to trainers, to all other manner of things. It was easier this way, for there to be something like a department to handle all the paperwork, instead of having to send everything to him. He was cheating in his paperwork duty, sort of.

"You only said that the Senju weren't the only ones...but you did all that in a manner of minutes..well almost an hour anyway," Mei said.

"I haven't done something like that in a while.." Ryoku said, "How was that Kujira-san?"

"Amazing!" the daimyo said, "Is it a bloodline?"

"In a way," Ryoku said, "But not exactly."

"Well, whatever it was was amazing," Kujira praised, "For the rest of our business, can we discuss it somewhere more private? Away from prying ears or eyes?"

"Sure," Ryoku said, then he stomped his foot on the ground and from right beside him an arcway with a tapestry of black shielding anyone from looking into it from the destination, the other end of the gateway, the portal, the doorway, the door.

Ryoku and Kujira made the two women be the first ones to step through, Kujira following, then Ryoku. All four stepped through hesitantly, including Ryoku as he wasn't sure where they would end up. It was a really weird experience to let ones mind wander when forming such a gateway, as he didn't know whether he had let them into his mindscape or his soul room, or the soul plane. After stepping through, he found himself standing in the living room of his mindscape. The other three just seemed to look around in wonder, as they didn't expect to find themselves in someplace such as this when they stepped through the portal. A portal which closed upon Ryoku's entry into it.

Before leaving the entertainment district though, Ryoku had added signs on the front doors of all the new estalishments stating, "Now Hiring, drop off application requests and resumes at the Mizukage's office."

Since all manner of food and drink that Ryoku kept in his mindscape was kept in the kitchen, he decided to lead his companions over to that section of his mindscape. How so many things could fit into the place boggled the mind of the three regular humans, while to Ryoku it seemed to look and was normal to his well organized and sometimes chaotic mind.

"So...anyone want something to eat? Or drink perhaps? Both?" Ryoku asked, there was no such thing as uncharacteristically when it came to him, he didn't bother waiting for anyone to answer and simply read their minds and went about preparing what he saw them thinking, food and drink wise, not the other things he found in Mei's mind.

He went about the kitchen as if he had been born in a kitchen, mixing and matching ingredients like it was second nature to him. Of course, even if he did make a mistake, it was still his mind they were in, and with but a thought he could correct his mistake. Kujira had wanted to ask for some Jasmine tea and possibly tempura for some reason. Mei's mother, Mai, wanted to request Lemongrass tea with some miso ramen. Mei on the other hand wanted to try butterbeer and have some dangos.

"What are you doing?" Kujira asked.

"Cooking," Ryoku replied, "So while I do this why don't you enjoy the drinks and the cookies, and talk amongst yourselves."

He did not lay the drinks down in front of them or the cookies with his hands, but simply by thinking that they were already there. They hadn't noticed the sudden appearance of the drinks and the snackables.

'_Fast_' Mei thought, as she hadn't seen him move away from the kitchen counter where he was doing whatever it was he was doing, she didn't know as she wasn't all that good when it came to housework.

'_Not only is he a Kage, but a keeper...but I wonder what we're to discuss here.._' Mai, Mei's mother, wondered.

'_Where in the world are we, he looked a bit surprised when we got here.._' Kujira wondered.

Ryoku's hands were moving at speeds that only shinobi used while fighting at their best, while displaying his culinary mastery. Tempura, miso ramen, and dango, all dishes he had grown used to making, ever since landing in this world. He could cook other dishes as well, due to all the practice he would do on some of the occassions he found himself bored. Some Jounin had actually found a bento in his office sometimes when they came in for missions, some of them thought that perhaps Mei had been the one to prepare it for him. But he told them all that he was bored before coming to work.

While he was preparing the multiple meals, his companions decided to start the discussion, the reason for such privacy. Ryoku of course listening in, which didn't really require him to do anything as it was occurring in his mind.

"What do you want with us now?" Mai asked with a disrespectful tone.

"Aside from seeing you again?" Kujira asked.

"Yes, aside from that," Mai said.

"To inform you that due to your marriage to Terumii Shin, the Murasaki clan lost a lot of honor as we had gone against our word," Kujira said.

"What do you mean? You didn't try to stop me from marrying Shin," Mai said, "So it can't be my fault.." she then realized that her daughter was with them, "..You don't mean that Mei has to fulfill the end of our side of the bargain in my place..do you?"

"I do," Kujira said.

"Um..excuse me..Kaa-san..but how are we related to the the daimyo?" Mei asked.

"I thought I taught you better manners than to but in when other people are still talking?" Mai asked her daughter, but decided to answer nonetheless, "Murasaki Kujira is my father, and your grandfather."

"Nani! Why'd you never tell me?" Mei asked her mother.

"You really didn't need to know, also I had thought that I had left the clan without besmirching its honor," Mai said, "I know I went against your wishes concerning marriage ,and you didn't seem to mind all that much at the time, but how exactly or to whom was I originally betrothed to? While on the subject, why wasn't I told?"

"Well as to your last question, we had thought that your betrothed had passed away," father told daughter, "As for who he is..well...he's very old...older than I am even."

"That's why you thought that he had died?" Mai asked, "Because he is older than you? When was I promised to him?"

"You were promised to him...right after Kirigakure was officially founded," Kujira said.

"So..uhm..Oji-san..ano..who am I to marry..to regain back the lost honor?" Mei asked, hesitantly.

"Me," Ryoku said, placing the food on the table in front of his three guests in his mind, then he took a seat and food magically appeared in front of him, a slice of pepperoni pizza.

Two sets of eyes stare at him unblinkingly for a few minutes, Kujira not bothering to snap them out of their induced trances, while Ryoku decided that his pizza was more important at the time. So while eating he began to hold a conversation with Kujira.

"Older than you I may be, but younger than you I look," Ryoku said, which was true.

"Which makes people like me underestimate you ability to do the impossible," Kujira said, "By the way, where are we? I presume this is your home. While on the tour you failed to point out your residence."

"Tour? Ah, that tour, this isn't my home exactly, just a representation of it," Ryoku said, "Where we are depends on where I am, and even if I were to tell you where exactly we are, I don't think your mind would be able to properly process such information."

"So..it is like a sealed off area of the village then..or like those summon realms?" Kujira said.

"Something like that," Ryoku said.

After a few more minutes of talking, the girls finally snapped out of their trances.

"I am/was engaged to you!" Mei and Mai said at the same time.

"Yes, you.." Ryoku said then brought out Keigo, "Were/Are," then dismissed his alter-ego (one of them).

"Is that why I'm your assistant?" Mei asked him.

"No, you are my assistant because you are oh so helpful," Ryoku said, "That and you are very capable when it comes to being an assistant to a Kage."

"Nothing that has anything to do with my being your fiance?" Mei asked.

"Well, yeah, technically I didn't specify for your mother to be my fiance, just that she would be mine," Ryoku said, "The Kujiras were the ones to make my granted request equate to an engagement."

"Oh..I see.." Mei said, sounding a little disappointed, "So its as punishment for what I did that time, as well as due to my being useful and good at my job..not because to that.."

"You sound a little disappointed," Ryoku said, "But don't worry, we wont need to marry for a while yet."

"Why is that, Mizukage-sama?" Mai asked, curiously.

"She still has to make a name for herself, in our world," Ryoku said, "Most shinobi and kunoichi would like to be known in the world for something."

"So..as soon as I get one of those nicknames, we will start talking about marriage?" Mei asked.

"Unless, you would want to be married ASAP," Ryoku said, "Do you?"

"Let's just get it over with.." she said, "Better than waiting, I like you enough as it is, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Kujira, her statement doesn't mean you can step down," Ryoku said to the daimyo.

"I know, I know," Kujira said, "So...congratulations to the both of you."

"Do..do I get to tell anyone about this?" Mei asked.

"Feel free to," Ryoku said, "I don't mind. Now, with that out of the way, Kujira do you want to get back to the capital the short way or the long way?"

"But what about my guards?" Kujira asked.

"Choose first," Ryoku said, as he fiddled with a boot, knowing that people in power rarely chose the long way when it comes to travel.

"Short way," Kujira said.

"Right then," Ryoku said and handed over to him the boot, "Say 'bye bye', and you will be brought, by the boot, to the main gate where your guards should still be. Once there, have each of them touch the boot, then say 'to the capital'. You'll be there faster than you can say kindergarten."

"Bye bye?" Kujira said while holding onto the boot, a second later he found himself at the main gate, with his guards looking at him surprised, and the Jounin wondering how the daimyo had managed to learn traceless or evidenceless shunshin.

"Was that some kind of reverse summoning?" Mai asked.

"Something like that," Ryoku said, "Now for the two of you, time to leave, Mai you have a husband that will be wondering where you are, and Mei there will be some paperwork for you to arrange."

"What about you?"

"The guard station is less stuffy as compared to my office," Ryoku said, "See you later.."

The two women found themselves at the places they needed to be, while Ryoku appeared outside the village. From his position beyond the mists, he released the scent and smell of blood into the mists, as well as into the winds. He then created some clones, had then henge into random people then sent them on their way to spread the word that one of the reasons for security at the border being so tight for all these years was due to a civil war that had broken out during the reign of the Sandaime Mizukage, and had been finally ended by the Yondaime, it was news that had supposedly been leaked by some shinobi. By spreading the word by gossip it was sure to finally reach the rest of the world.

With that over and done with, he made his way over to the gate, and relieved the Jounin.

"Dismissed," Ryoku said, "Ask one of your fellows what to do tomorrow after you've rested up."

"Hai Mizukage-sama," they said and walked away talking about all the weird shit they had born witness to by just being at the gate. While most would think that gate guard duty was boring, there was a whole lot of things that went on that day around the gate that the Jounin actually enjoyed themselves. Its all in the mind, the mindset of one person will always affect the real world in one way or antoher.

Most of Ryoku's plans to make the rest of he world view Mizu no Kuni and Kirigakure no Sato ruthless and formidable ended up being performed and completed by him, as it seemed like his shinobi had decided to get busy after their commanders informed them about the upcoming exams.

After the almost week long clean up period, Ryoku had announced to the whole village that they would be hosting the historical event, which explained why he had constructed those new establishments and was hiring for the places. The people of Kiri had taken the news well, and the announcement served to make all the people work harder than ever before, as they needed to impress the many visitors that were sure to come to their beloved village.

Mei had decided not to reveal her engagement to Ryoku, but her mother and her clan were preparing for a wedding, the guest list was being prepared, but Mei didn't know who to invite for Ryoku's guests, as the only thing she really knew about him was that he was her kage, and that most of the people that he really knew were long dead. She didn't know who to invite, and she dreaded having to ask her for a list.

"Just ask him already," Mai told her daughter one day, "He's not going to kill you for just asking. Just remember not to whine or to complain about your workload, he has more work than all the shinobi in the village after all."

"Fine, I'll ask him.." Mei said grumbling as she made her way to the Kage Tower, it was her rest day, as well as for all the other workers at the Tower. Ryoku being the only one who actually enjoyed his paperwork, and everything else that went on in that place when no one else was around.

As she arrived at the lobby of the Tower, she was barreled over from behin by the Rank Commanders, all of them one after another had arrived, carrying reports, and whatnot. Apparently they all believed that no one would be at the Tower this day, and had teleported with their stuff. Only to find Mei there.

After a round of apologies, all of them made their way to Ryoku's office on the second to the top floor. They found their Kage hanging from a rope in the middle of the room, his body swaying in a nonexisting wind. He actually looked like he had commited suicide. While the commanders began to freak out as they had never encountered their Kage in such a state before, Mei simply walked up to his dangling form and poked him in the side. The body them exploded into ninja smoke, and revealed him to have been sitting on the floor drawing seals into the carpet of his office.

"Reports on the desk, anything else?" Ryoku said as he continued to draw the intricate lines of the seals, complex patterns which no one could understand. He was actually making his own version of the Marauders' Map, except it was of the village and not some castle full of kids. It was a combination of seals, runes, and magic. The only thing was that the map couldn't be brought around since the material used for the map was a portion of the carpet in his office.

"What are you doing?" Mei asked him as she peered down on at what he was doing, "And why do you insist on leaving that gen-nin-jutsu in place?"

"I like seeing people freak out," Ryoku said, "The janitor's used to it..same with Yagura, he slipped in here once while he was running away from his girlfriend."

"Oh.." she said.

"Anything else sides from those reports?" Ryoku asked the Commanders.

"Nothing really, its just that..we're a little bored.." Kisame said, "Sure there was the change of swordsmen among the Seven this morning, but this afternoon is kind of boring."

"I see..and you," Ryoku said to Mei.

"I..um.." she said a little embarrassed, "Could you guys leave us for a bit?" she asked the commanders.

"Go find something else to do...yes, you lot," Ryoku said, it was more or a request than an order, but they complied nonetheless.

When they were finally alone, Mei visibly relaxed and decided to sit on the floor beside her fiance to ask her question. It was also a little weird to be standing while the Kage was on the floor doing what some could mistake for doodling.

"What is it you wanted to ask me?" Ryoku said.

"I..I was thinking that we could get married at the water temple after the Chunin Exams.." Mei said, blushing a little since the thought that she would be getting married had finally sunk in, "And..I..um..wanted to ask who you want to invite to the ceremony."

"Invite to the ceremony? The Commanders for starters," Ryoku said, "A number of summons..those that live within the Eastern part of the continent...and I guess Ryuuko Kimura..that's about it I believe."

"Invitations to the Rank Commanders should be easy...but how am I supposed to send invitations to the summon clans and to the Daimyo of Tetsu no Kuni?" Mei asked, "How do you even know that he will attend? Actually how do you even know the daimyo of Tetsu..the one you trained is long dead..they just keep using that name.."

"Its not a name exactly," Ryoku said, "Its more of a title, the every Daimyo of Tetsu no Kuni uses the name Kimura officially once they take up that seat of power, but before that they had other names. As for how I am sure that he will attend, well aside from it being the marriage of a kage to the end of the royal line of the Mizu Daimyo's bloodline, there is also the fact that I, as Ryuumusha, or one of the three have been visiting that clan through the years. I have been checking up on them so to speak."

"But if he does come, wont the other nations, once they find out, think of Tetsu finally siding with someone? We could be viewed as a threat to the peace of the other nations," Mei said.

"Don't worry about that," Ryoku said, "If you mention my name specifically in the invitation, he'll come incognito."

"And the summons?"

"Here is a list of the summon clans that will be attending," Ryoku said as he handed her a sheet of paper with a list of the summon clans, a piece of paper which magically appeared in his hand, "Just make the invitations and have them delivered by the Murasaki clan's summons or the Ootori clan's summons."

"..There is also the manner by which the invitations are to be sent out.." she said, "My mother and I thought that maybe we could have them delivered either by those messenger-nin or make a mission out of it...what do you think?"

"For the human, missions would be your best bet, especially if you are going to be inviting people from out of the village or the country in Kimura's case," Ryoku said, "Just have the missions billed to my account, the summons I've already told you what to do."

"Uhm..." she said.

"Yes? Is something the matter?" he asked concernedly.

"Why haven't you announced our engagement to the whole village?" she asked him.

"I didn't think you wanted me to," Ryoku said, "But if you want me to I can."

"I..no..I think its better than people just get surprised by it," she said, "But I'm a little concerned how people will take it.."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, confused.

"Well...usually a kage's wife is either some high class lady or some strong kunoichi..or at least that has been the case so far," she said, "I just feel like I wont be able to meet the expectations of the people.."

"Expectations?" Ryoku said, "I highly doubt they have any at the moment. As for your not being a strong kunoichi..I'll send you out on a mission during the Exams..not all the Jounin will be needed within the walls of the village."

"You're sending me on a mission just so I can boost my status? Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she asked, "Cause it doesn't."

"The client specifically asked for you actually," Ryoku said, "You and Kaguya Shiki."

Kaguya Shiki had been promoted and replaced one of the retired Seven.

"Ok.." she said, "So...you still haven't answered my question."

"What am I doing?"

"Yeah, what are you doing?"

"A complex set of seals, runes, and a little bit of good old magic," Ryoku explained, "All in combination to create a villag wide map, one that will display every single living inhabitant, with changeable settings. It is automatically updating, and has a number of other useful features."

"So..is it done yet?" she asked, as he had stopped drawing on the carpet.

"As of right now, its basic features are complete," he said, "When activated it will show a bird's eye view of the whole village, as well as the area of the mists around the walls."

"Since its done, can you demonstrate it for me? Please?"

"No," he said.

"Why not? C'mon please, do it for your fiance, please," she sounded like a little whinning child, only thing missing were those damnable puppy dog eyes.

"Go fetch those commanders, it would be better to show them and you at the same time," he said, "This is more a security feature than a toy."

"Ok..but before I go, answer me one more question," she said.

"What is it?"

"What do you mean by toy?"

"Well...it serves as a control panel for a few features that I have been adding to the village in general," he said, "More like pranks than anything, but should an invasion ever occur they can be used as defensive measures."

"What gives with you and measures against an invasion?" she asked before leaving the room, she had already stood up and gone to the door.

"Its always better to be prepared for any eventuality," Ryoku said, "You said one question, that was two."

"Ah..right.." she said sheepishly then shunshin'ed out of the Tower, and went off in search of the Commanders. She had not been able to think of asking Ryoku to use his map to locate the commanders to make her task easier.

It took her a while to locate them all, for they were literally all over the village, and obviously constantly on the move.

She had found Kisame underwater, as he was helping the pearl farmers harvest their pearls, Ryoku's pearls, in the lake beside the Mizukage Tower. Locating him hadn't been a problem, as she had seen him pop out of the water upon leaving the Tower. Her problem at the time was getting him to stay above the water for more than a few scant seconds to inform him that he was being summoned. She could have sent a raiton jutsu into the water, but that would be a bad thing for the water creatures that lived in the lake, even a mild one could prove disastrous. Of course she didn't know that Ryoku had placed protections against such things effecting the living things in the lake, save for the people in it.

Kisame was one of the few members of his clan that had achieved the final stage of their bloodline, that being th ability to transform, physically into into a man-shark hybrid, complete with fins and tail.

Since she had already found him, and the farmers informed her that he would be in the water for a while, she decided to go on and locate the other commanders. Since one of her targets was the Anbu Commander, she decided to simply find an Anbu, they all had a radio on them for easy communication.

Finding an Anbu was easy, as they were literally all over the place, if not working, they were relaxing during their short breaks.

"Oi! Tora-san!" she called out to one Anbu she found lazing about on a branch of a tree.

The only sign she received that the Anbu had heard her was for him to drop down and walk up to her.

"Do you know where Ootori Meizu and Minami Tora are?" she asked, as she had recalled that Minami Tora sometimes worked as Ryoku's Anbu guard wearing a Tora mask.

"Its Taichou's and Senpai's day off today," the Anbu said, "I don't know where either of them are, and since they're not in uniform I doubt anyone else would know."

"Could you keep a look out for them?" she asked, "They're needed at the Tower."

"Hai, Terumii-san," the Anbu said, and decided that since the two were needed at the Tower then that meant that the Mizukage needed them, and therefore it was something important and he would just have to forget about his break for this task, "But how about I accompany you on your search?"

"But isn't it your break time?" she asked.

"Well, not really," he said, "Its also my day off..I'm just wearing my uniform since I don't really have anything else to do today."

"Oh," she said, and they walked on in search of the remaining targets.

An hour later, she found herself walking with four Anbu, all of them spending their day off helping her do her job. While splitting up would be great, it would be hard to communicate with one another or inform one another if one of their targets had been found as radios were expensive and the standard issue ones for Anbu were an on-duty-use-only.

While they had all been living in the village all their lives, they had decided to buy a map of the village, as it was huge, and so as to make crossing out locations easier. The four made their way throughout the village, as well as to the homes of the commanders, for it was a possibility that they were there. All compounds reported that they were not there.

As they moved through the districts, other than the residential ones, the people found it different seeing two anbu walking on the rooftops keeping a lookout, while two anbu and one Jounin scoured the street, only stopping to ask about the whereabouts of one of the commanders. Some people guessed right that the Mizukage summoned them, but there were also those that thought that the commanders had been labelled as nuke-nin and were being discreetly hunted, and a few other theories as to why this group of five were running hither and tither around the village. Kisame joined them thirty minutes later having finished helping the pearl famers, and had simply told her that he would head on over to the Tower, and wait in the Mizukage's office.

Shun Tamago was finally found in a Sushi restaurant eating his favorite dish, tamago sushi, he was named after the stuff after all. Once informed of his summons, he paid the bill and left for the tower, but not before having several orders of the stuff delivered to his home. The problem was, in his haste, he had left the wrong amount of money, and two of the Anbu had to run after him to get him back to the restaurant to pay the correct fee. Which he did, but the chase had made some of the people that thought that the commanders had gone nuke-nin to believe their guess a whole lot more, as Tamago was escorted to the Tower, just in case something caught his eye or he forgot something.

Shigeru Mogatari should have probably been the easiest to find, as he had been stealthily following the group ever since they passed him by. He had been wondering what they were after, and when he finally found out, he simply walked behind Mei and tapped her shoulder. He had forgotten that he was still in stealth mode, and had received the beating of a lifetime, as well as being called a pervert for some reason. It must have been an automatic reaction.

One of the two remaining Anbu decided to deliver him to the Tower, after bringing him to the Hospital to make sure that his wounds and bruises weren't life threatening. Those that believed that the commanders had become traitors were finally able to convince those that didn't think it to go over to the dark side and believe it too. The Shigeru clan's bloodline limit made them all sensor type ninja. Since they could detect chakra, perfectly from birth without really trying, they could also perfectly mask their chakra, which sometimes they needed to be reminded to unmask.

The search finally lead the remaining two to the remaining two targets, both of whom were in one of the training grounds sparring one another. Both of them not holding anything back, but prepared to stop before fatally or mortally wounding the fighter. They were so immersed in their spar that they failed to notice Mei walked up to their clashing forms and fearlessly grab onto the backs of both of their vests, knock them out with a blow to the back of the neck, and throw Tora at the remaining anbu while she carried the Anbu commander.

When the meeting finally started, more like a presentation, there was a number of people outside of the Tower, all of them pretending that they were busy, while impatiently anticipating what would happen after the events of that afternoon. There were those that expected that there would be an announcement about the commanders becoming nuke-nin for some reason, or for some other thing to happen.

In the office..

"Glad that you've all finally decided to grace me with your presences," Ryoku said sarcastically as one hand played with a card thin sheet of metal that resembled a television remote control.

"Ah..well.." Tamago said.

"You see.." Mogatari said.

"Show me that map already!" Mei demanded impatiently, and pouted.

"Mei..you do know that you're speaking to the Mizukage right?" Tora asked, making sure she knew just what she had done, though he did wonder about why she mentioned a map in her demand.

"Yeah, you might've just signed yourself up for janitor duty, or the bucket," Kisame said.

"Fine, fine," Ryoku said, surprising the other men in the room, while holding the remote he intoned, "I solemly swear I'm up to no good."

With those words spoken, the walls of the office, the ceiling, and the carpet glowed for a few seconds then changed to the color of parchment, the same as the Marauders' Map. After which lines began to form, and a minute or two later a complete and complex map of the entire village had drawn itself out on the carpet. The wall behind the Mizukage's desk where the windows of the room were located turned black, then parchment color, the windows vanished from sight but were still there somehow, on that side of the room many words appeared. On one wall many more words, just as the wall opposite to it. The wall where the door was located gained the same color but had the words 'under construction' written on it.

"As you all know, the Mizukage's office is the most secure room in the whole Mizukage Tower," Ryoku said, "But what you have not been aware of is, just how secure the room is. It has the ability to exist apart from the Tower itself. Meaning should the Tower ever be destroyed, the office will still be accessible, but only if one is in possession of the Kage Hat. As you can see, the map is more or less just the lay of the land, but it has a number of other features to it."

He then handed out some books to the Commanders..

"Read these manuals, and familiarize their contents," Ryoku said, "That's more or less the instruction manual for the map, pass it on when you pass on your positions."

"Could you explain some of the features or the basic interface of the map?" Meizu asked.

"Sure," Ryoku said, then began his explanation, "You will notice the three of the walls have numerous words written on them, two of the walls have constantly changing information. The information on those two walls report on different information about the village, from the temperature of the lakes to the number of people walking around the village at present. Don't ask about how it works, you wouldn't understand."

He said that last part before Mogatari could ask for an explanation for how it was possible.

"The blank wall," Ryoku said, referring to the one that was still under construction, "Will, in the future, have the ability to show singular places in three dimensional form. Giving a better view of any single location within the village. Actually now that I think about it, that future map might be in the fourth of fifth dimension in form."

"Ok..so two walls display basic and advanced information, and the blank will show a greater in detail map of single locations," Tora said, "But what about the wall behind your desk, and the map on the floor?"

"The wall behind my desk is like a control panel for the map on the floor and the other walls," Ryoku said, "Now the map on the floor is a semi-interactive and self-updating map of the village. While it may look like a simple lay of the land type of map, should I activate its basic feature, like so.." he then pressed on a button like design on the remote control card he still held in his hand, "You see, how useful this is?"

They saw the whole map light up with small dots, attached to each dot was a small name tag. Not all the dots were the same color, there were black ones, green ones, orange, red, white, a bunch of other colors and even gray ones. At one corner of the map was the legend for the map. Black for civilian, green for genin, orange for chunin, red for jounin, white for anbu, gray for nuke-nin, purple for hunter-nin, blue for medin-nin, and there were a few other symbols that weren't displayed on the map at the moment. There was even a star symbol, those were assigned to the kage and the rank commanders.

"T-there are several nuke-nin in the village!" Tamago exclaimed, it was his division's job to hunt down nuke-nins.

"By modifying or changing the settings, we will be able to see what we want to see," Ryoku said, then changed the setting by playing with the wall behind his desk and the remote in his hand, while he was doing that the dots on the map began to disappear. In the end only the nuke-nins, anbu, and the hunter-nins were the only ones present on the map.

"One of the features of the map..or more like the room when the map is activated, is that we can form a mental link with anyone in the village..don't ask its complicated," Ryoku said, "From here we can coordinate such things as capturing nuke-nin while they are still in the village. Shall we begin our first operation?"

"Let's," Tamago said eagerly, "But I want to be on the receiving end of the transmission."

"I'll go out too," Meizu said, then both of them left the room to lead their own divisions on the hunt.

When they were visible on the map, since the Kage office part of the map had been deactivated by Ryoku for the mean time, he didn't want his and Mei's information to accidentally be viewed. The map was also connected to the village archives, library, and a secret database that Ryoku had. Each dot was linked to a basic, advanced, and confidential profile of each of the persons in the village. The database was linked to all the seals scattered throughout the village, which helped with the automatic updating feature.

"Tora, you'll monitor the map," Ryoku instructed, "Mei, you take notes, Kisame monitor the information on the walls, I'll handle the communication part," he then pulled out what looked like a laser pointer and the beam of light hit the dot that had Tamago's and Meizu's names on them one after the other, it was a short cut device for touching the dots. A drop down menu appeared on the map for both names, and Ryoku chose the 'link' choice. He then placed the remote-like thing on the side of his head, and it morphed into a speaker and microphone.

"This is the Mizukage, do you read me, over," Ryoku said over the link, while it wasn't very mental on his end, it was on the other end.

'_We think the words, right?_' came Tamago's reply, which was heard loud and clear in the room.

'_Cool!_' Meizu's voice, or mental voice was heard in the room.

"Correct," Ryoku said, "Tora, the location of the first target?" he threw the Chunin commander a device similar to the one he was using, and also to the others in the room as well.

"Hey, I can see their vitals on the wall!" Kisame said.

"Tora, think of who you want to talk to of the two that are currently linked with the map's link function," Ryoku instructed.

"There are three at seventeen meters from your present location," Tora said, thinking of Tamago.

"Meizu, I'm sure you have a radio on your person, have your anbu clear the area," Ryoku instructed.

While Tora and Ryoku continued with directing and monitoring the situation and operation, Mei and Kisame decided to play around with the two walls. They tried to find out as much as they could from the walls, and the information they presented.

By lightly tapping one of the names on the wall, an image was projected in the air, that image being the drop down menu like the one on the map. Kisame decided to view the profile part of the thing, as he kept getting an access denied message whenever he tried to click on the connect function.

"Sweet," Kisame said happily, "There's a basic profile..the advanced one needs clearance..which I don't have..damn."

"P H three two five three seven two five," Mei whispered to him.

"What?" he asked, startled.

"It'll get us to access some additional information," she said.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"I just do," she said, Ryoku had downloaded the information into her head a second ago.

After finding something resembling a keypad or a number pad, Kisame searched for a password entry button or something. Once he found it, he inputed the passcode, and was granted a little bit more access into the system. Which allowed some additional information on the profile of his comrade to appear. Most of it was useless stuff, but the fun part was finding out that the man collected plushies for some reason, it was a hobby and everyone was entitled to at least one.

"...plushies..." Kisame said unbelievingly, "...plushies..."

After that little discovery, Kisame and Mei continued to play with the display a little bit more, until Ryoku deactivated the thing as they had managed to capture all of the nuke-nin and a few tresspassers that were listed in the Bingo Books as nuke-nin.

"If you have the time, Mizukage-sama, perhaps you should create a smaller portable version that can be used by the security division," Meizu said, "We could really use something like this at headquarters."

"Read the manuals first, then I'll think about it," Ryoku said.

"Hey! Turn it back on! We were getting to the good parts!" Mei whined, Kisame would have too but he still had some fear in him considering who he would be whining to.

"Run!" Kisame said as he grabbed Tora, Meizu, Tamago, and Mogatari all of whom were in the room at the time that Mei had said what she said, and the men proceeded to run out of the building. Explaining, partially, to the gathered crowd what had happened, dousing the belief of the commanders going nuke-nin since the Anbu that were present did not bother them.

With the commanders gone from the office, Ryoku approached Mei..

"No," he said, "I think perhaps, you should head back home. It still is technically your day off."

"But what about you?" she asked.

"I don't get day offs," he said.

"Why not?"

"Cause I said so. Now get a move on, before you start complaining that you wasted your day off.." Ryoku said, "..Again."

"Alright, already," she said, as he actually pushed her out of the window of his office. She didn't fall to her doom, as he had done the same thing countless times before. She was also a capable Jounin, which meant that she was able to make it to the rooftops rather quickly instad of plummeting a few feet before kicking off of the tower to make it a jump to one of the rooftops.

'_Peace and quiet..at last..time to see if I can make portraits..the moving kind.._' Ryoku thought as he sat behind his desk, pulled out some paper and pens, and began to scribble.


	28. Chapter 28

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter twenty-eight**_

'_I can't believe we've run out of ninja..maybe..nah..she's already gone out.._' Ryoku had found one more mission that needed completing, the reason why it was so important was because it dealt with another country altogether. Diplomatic relations between Mizu no Kuni and Umi no Kuni could become strained if the mission was not completed.

'_I could always...hehe...I haven't been out of the village in a while.._' Ryoku began to plot, while normally protection missions required a team of shinobi, he guessed that since he was Mizukage and all that, just him and a few clones would suffice, he did after have all those summons to count on if anything really bad happened.

Deciding on a course of action, Ryoku summoned Mogatari to his office via the Map. The Jounin Commander arrived in the office in record time, as he was actually just about to enter the Tower to report on the present status of the village.

"I was just about to submit my report," Mogatari said, "Is something the matter, sir?"

"I'm taking on a solo mission," Ryoku informed him, "You will be taking charge of the village in my place. Don't screw up, but if you really need me, just have one of the Ootori clan summons contact me."

"...You're going on a mission? There's still one of those really difficult ones laying around?" Mogatari questioned, surprised at the revelation, and thinking that his Kage was probably going to go out and save a country or something.

"Not that hard actually, just a B-rank protection detail, but what makes it important is that the client is one of the nephews of the Daimyo of Umi no Kuni," Ryoku said.

"But..at least take someone with you," Mogatari insisted, "Like...Zabuza..I just saw him drop off his latest mission report."

"Fine," Ryoku said, "You inform him..and inform Yagura that he's in charge of gate guard duty."

"Me? But Yagura'll kill me if I tell him that.." Mogatari said, fearing his next encounter with that swordsman.

"Yes you," Ryoku said, "So, I'll leave the village in your capable hands, don't mess anything up," Ryoku warned, his tone promising something worse than a sound beating if Mogatari somehow managed to smear some mud on the reputation of Kirigakure no Sato or on Mizu no Kuni.

After leaving his office, and the Tower altogether, Ryoku faded from view, infront of a group of children, one of which happened to have heard someone once say that if you say that something doesn't exist, it will vanish before your very eyes. Too bad for that chlid, she had told her friends about it, that she said before Ryoku appeared that she didn't believe that there was a Mizukage, it was meant as a joke. But after witnessing her very own kage vanish right before her very eyes, she bagan to cry, thinking that she had made their kage vanish. Her friends followed suit as they had dared her to say something like that.

The adults, after being attracted by the commotion that the bunch of brats were making, found out what had happened, they comforted the children and brough them to their homes, that their parents may deal with them. Two of the Chunin that were present decided to speak to the Mizukage about the incident.

But after entering the Tower, they were informed that the Kage had gone out, and since no one knew where exactly it was that he lived, save for possibly his assistant who was not in the village at that time, they were screwed.

"What are you two headless chickens doing running around the third floor of the Tower?" Mogatari demanded of the two Chunin as he grabbed hold of the backs of their vests and held them up in the air, with their feet still kicking as if they were still trying to run.

"The Mizukage's gone!" one of them said.

"Hmm...So?" Mogatari said, not really all that concerned, "I'm sure he just went home."

"No..but you see..." then the Chunin filled the Jounin Commander in on the situatioin.

"Don't worry about it," Mogatari said waving off their concern for their Kage, "It was just coincidence. He's done shit crazier than that, plus no one knows where he lives. So we wouldn't be able to check if he was there anyway."

"But what are we going to tell the people? You know how such news travels fast around any village," one Chunin said.

"If anyone asks, we just say that the Mizukage is out on a mission," Mogatari said, "Which is actually why he'll be missing for some time, I also need one of you to inform Momochi Zabuza to meet Mizukage-sama at the Main Gate, to join him on the mission."

"Hai, Mogatari-sama," one Chunin said, then shunshin'ed away, leaving wth other one with the Jounin Commander.

"What about me?" the remaining Chunin asked.

"You are to tell anyone that asks, that the children fed their own fear, Mizukage-sama just shunshin'ed away," Mogatari said, "And don't forget about him having a mission."

An hour or two later, Ryoku and Zabuza were busy walking away from the village, heading Umi no Kuni, for their mission. There was just something about guard duty that attracted Ryoku for some reason. He was and would probably be the only Kage in the history of kage-ship that enjoyed or didn't really mind guard duty, or paperwork for that matter. It must have been all that accumulated patience from all those years of living and waiting for things to happen.

#

The trip to their destination was an unevetful one to say the least. Zabuza kept to himself mostly. He had spent most of their travel time casting awed glances towards his Kage. It wasn't everyday that someone was able to actually join their Kage on a mission, any mission, that didn't have much paperwork involved.

"Uhm..Mizukage-sama, where exactly are we headed?" Zabuza finally decided to ask.

"Umi no Kuni," Ryoku replied, "We're the protection detail for the nephew of the the Daimyo. He plans on constructing a port somewhere along their coast for his private business's needs. Is there anything else you want to know Zabuza?"

"Ah..I'm good, Mizukage-sama," Zabuza said.

"How goes your plan for gaining a name?" Ryoku asked out of the blue.

"Its going well, sir, I can't wait to test it out on some unsuspecting shinobi," he replied.

"Very good," Ryoku said, then he continued to lead his companion and comrade in what seemed like circles to his companion.

Zabuza thought that he had found a fatal flaw in his Kage's character or ability. He believed that they were lost, since he had spotted a tree that that had the same slash marks he had left more than thirty times now. He simply did not want to have to point the fact out to his Kage, lest he suffer the bucket.

"We are not lost," Ryoku said simply, "We are, or rather, I am performing a transportation jutsu that requires us to walk in circles."

"That's a rather dizzying requirement," the swordsman said.

"Not really," Ryoku said.

After few more minutes of walking in circles, Ryoku decided that he had wound enough magic around the place to properly transport the two of them instantly to the designated meeting place with the Daimyo's nephew.

"When we get there you had better not scream," Ryoku warned his companion.

"Why would I scream?" he asked.

"I dunno," Ryoku said, then pulled out one of his blades and decapitated his comapion, following that action he plunged his blade into his gut and followed his companion to their destination. It was the eeriest mode of transportation that Zabuza had ever experienced. He eneded up screaming when he arrived at their destination in one piece and alive.

"I told you not to scream," Ryoku said, then whacked his subordinate upside the head, causing him to crash face first into the ground, then faced their employer, "Sorry about that."

"S'alright, are you by any chance the protection detail I requested?" the client asked.

"Yes, we're it," Ryoku replied, "I'm Ryoku by the way, and my companion is Momochi Zabuza."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Umiboshi Yomi, obviously your client," Yomi introduced himself, "Why are there only two of you? You do know that you will be in charge of protecting the construction site along with myself and the construction workers, right?"

"We're all you need," Ryoku said, "I forgot to mention that I am the Yondaime Mizukage."

"What! Really! Why did it have to be you, Mizukage-dono?" Yomi asked disbelievingly.

"It was because Umi no Kuni is viewed as a valueable ally and friend," Zabuza answered for his Kage after picking himself up off the ground.

"But why the Kage of all shinobi?" Yomi asked, a little bit concerned.

"As my subordinate said, I value our two countries' friendship, which is why I personally came, that and there really weren't any available shinobi at the moment," Ryoku said, "I only brought my subordinate due to the nagging of one of my other subordinates."

"That's the only reason I was drafted for this mission?" Zabuza asked incredulously and a little bit disappointedly, "I thought it was due to my being one of the Seven..."

"A little, but at least this way, you get to shine alongside me," Ryoku said, "Not that many shinobi are able to boast as having served in a mission alongside their Kage."

"There is that I guess.." the subordinate admitted...

"So, Yomi-san, where is the site, that we may set up?" Ryoku said.

"It's right this way, we're actually at the perimeter of the site itself," Yomi said, and led the two men to the actual construction site.

It was to be a medium sized port, some of the construction had already begun. There were a few soldiers from the capital of Umi no Kuni there already guarding the place from anyone that would hope to sabotage the project for whatever reason. But now with two shinobi present they could relax their guards a little.

Yomi had given Ryoku and Zabuza the grand tour..

"..and that's that," Yomi said ending the tour at the spot that they had started from, "If there is anything you need, don't hesitate to ask."

"We'll be fine," Ryoku said, "Thank you for your concern."

"Alright, I'll get back to work now then," Yomi said, then walked away heading for wherever it is he was supposed to be at that moment.

When their client was out of earshot, Ryoku addressed Zabuza

"You take care of the perimeter, I'll take care of the main construction site," Ryoku said.

"Hai!" Zabuza said and went about setting up protections for the perimeter, while Ryoku calmly walked further into the construction site.

Ryoku made his way to where he knew his client was at that moment. He had an offer he doubted Yomi would want to refuse. He wanted to speed up the completion of the project, that he might return to his village in time for the Chuunin Exams.

"Yomi are you in here?" Ryoku asked as he entered the tent that served as an office.

"I'm in here, is there something you need Mizukage-dono?" Yomi asked from behind stacks upon stacks of what seemed like paperwork.

"Actually I have an offer for you," Ryoku said, "It will make completing this project all the more faster."

"I'm listening.." Yomi said.

"I have a constuction crew of my own," Ryoku said.

"And what would it cost me?" Yomi asked.

"Nothing more than you are already paying for this mission," Ryoku said.

"Very well," Yomi said, "How soon til they can get here?"

"As soon as I summon them," Ryoku said, smirking a little.

"Summon them? What do you mean?" Yomi asked.

"I mean summon them, the crew I am talking about is made up of summon creatures," Ryoku said, "They helped with the construction of Kirigakure no Sato," Ryoku informed his client, "It really depends on when you want them to aid in the construction."

"As soon as possible..I guess," Yomi said, unsure, "How about now?"

"Lead the way to where you want them to start...or at least where your foreman is," Ryoku said.

"Follow me then," Yomi said as he lead Ryoku to the person in charge of the actual construction.

When they got to their final destination, Ryoku slammed both palms on the ground, but instead of shouting out, as most were known to do, the Justu, he simply ordered..

"Get over here!"

The result was an explosion of ninja smoke. When the smoke dispersed, the humans were met with the site of half-human half-animal people. The summons had arrived, in their hybrid forms. There were around one hundred of them, all looking to be of different sizes, but none bigger than a nine foot tall human.

"That's a lot of workers.." Yomi said after whistling his appreciation.

"What are your orders, Ryoku-sama?" the one hundred new arrivals said as one, all of them standing at attention.

"Follow the orders of the foreman, until the construction of this port is complete," Ryoku instructed, "Give it your all."

"Hai!" all one hundred said as one, "We will not disappoint you, sir!"

"All right, enough of that!" the foreman said, "Line up, and I'll hand out your individual orders, instructions, and duties, until the completion of this project."

With the summons being as busy as they were, Ryoku decided to set up his own brand of protections for the site himself, while Yomi returned to his paperwork, the dreaded responsibility of any leader that was not Ryoku.

He walked to a rather secluded area of the site and began drawing out his magics and his powers. He sat on the ground and began to enter a meditative like state. A state similar to that which those tha asprire to become sages are able to enter once becoming official sages.

Sages were very rare, especially in this day and age. Summon clan elders were the ones in charge of making the decision that one was able to learn how to be a sage. There were strict requirements for a summoner to become a sage.

He calmed the seas, and the skies, he calmed the earth. All was calm in the world, all was at peace. He let the power granted to him by becoming one with the First Seed to seep out of him, and into all things. There was nothing in the world that was not made known to him, there were no secrets to him in the state he had entered. He knew all that there was to know. He saw all that there was to see, and heard all that there was to hear.

He let himself become one with the world, with this world, with his world. He sought out any and all that had ill intentions for his client and his client's project. Finding them was easy, easy and simple as pie. They were all around the country of Umi no Kuni after all. But narrowing down those that needed to be dealt with was something else entirely. He had to literally perform massive legilimens scans of all the suspects to determine who to add to his hitlist and all those that did not need to be dealt with. I

It was a process which to him would seem like no time at all had passed, even though he was consciously aware of the true passage of time, to those that would see him in his meditative state, the process of elimination would last for several hours, if not days. But none of the mortal humans would need to worry about him as the summons informed them that he was drawing energy from the world itself, from nature, and all things within it. There was no need to worry, as he was in one of his most powerful states.

Who knew that looking like one was sleeping in the sitting indian style could be considered as one's most powerful states of being. But it was, since Ryoku was more or less one with the world. While his body itself was seemingly defenseless, his magics and powers could still manifest if he allowed it. If he felt threatened in anyway his magics would rise up in the form of his animal forms, most assuredly the first one being his dragon form.

He watched as Zabuza single handedly took down the first group of saboteurs, making sure to leave at least one heavily injured man to flee back to his contractors with information that there was a demon lurking around the perimeter of the construction site. With Zabuza at the border these saboteurs would not be much of a bother, it was the ones behind the attacks to come that Ryoku had decided to focus on, and remove from the mortal realm before their intentions could be fulfilled or acted on.

He found a total of fifty individuals, only three of whom were nobility wanting to smear some mud on the Umiboshi name. Too bad Ryoku got to them before they could act. He made sure that they either crossed over to the path of righteousness or honesty and out of the path of deceit, but should they continue to tread the path that they were on, and not move into the path of enlightenment, then Ryoku's curses would make themselves known.

Requirement magics, these were curses or simply spells that were set up in such a way that their effects would only be felt if and when certain requirements were met. Ryoku was sure that all fifty would be suffering the consequences of continuing down the path of the dark side. He anticipated their choice, and had made sure that the curse would not only affect them, but would affect their families as well.

The curse was that they would be unlucky when it came to things that would normally benefit them greatly. But should they work towards a more community oriented goal, they would be successful.

While he was cursing and reading minds and finding intentions, Ryoku also weaved his magic, protections, and the like into the structures being formed, into the materials being used. All in with the effect of making sure that they would last for a long time. That future generations would be able to marvel at their timeless beauty, as he was sure his summons would try their hand at adding a little aesthetic beauty to the project, not that Yomi seemed to mind that much. He only cared that the project was completed and his business could run smoothly, and become more productive.

It was on the day that the port was finished, furnishing being the only thing the workers were busying themselves with, that those three nobles had decided to commence their mercenarial attack. There group of attackers were made up of mercenaries and bandits, and a few criminals that were set loose.

They never made their way into the port area itself, as they were met at the perimeter by not only Zabuza, but also Ryoku's other forms, namely Ryuumusha, Keigo, and Shinobu. All three in their traditional garbs.

'_Think of them as my clones..._' Ryoku's voice weaved its way into Zabuza's mind, '_Through them you will have some form of back up. Show these fools the might of Kiri._'

With the knowledge that the new arrivals were allies in a sense, Zabuza chose a group of enemies as his, and filled the area with mist, not needing the handseals for Kirigakure no Jutsu, but simply molding and manipulating the chakra to do his bidding.

Ryuumusha did not wait for anything signal from his other selves, as they were all one and the same, separate parts that made up the meditating whole. Drawing a single blade he cut his way through the enemy, not only cutting off their connection from the world of life, but also shredding their mortal shells to innumerable pieces with movements that the eye could not track, and that the kekkai genkai doujutsu would have a difficult time catching up with.

It did not matter what direction of type of slash or slice or cut he performed, he was one with the winds, and each movement was like being cut up by the four winds of the world. The war element, not only able to blow one away, but mince even minced meat to the point of nonexistence.

If one were to race with the wind, one would surely lose, as there was nothing faster than the wind..sort of, and Ryuumusha Ryoku was one with the wind. No, he was the wind.

Only clothing and weapons remained with each enemy he cut down. Flesh, blood, and bone, were destroyed in the onslaught. He was not only the wind, but the water as well. The blood simply transformed into water, loosing all the organic properties and simply turned into pure water to be added to the already saturated mist that aided the Kirigakure no Kijin with his deadly art.

Keigo, produced a spear, twirled it around himself as if guaging its usefulness and his ability to weild it. Once he was done, he too jumped into the fray, facing off against his own batch of enemies, he coated the bladed tip of his spear with fire, fire so hot that it rivaled the sun in heat and intensity, burning all enemies that it touch, and even scorched the earth to such a degree that it would take the vegetation normally some time to grow back, but Ryoku was already working on restoring it from being damaged.

While Ryuumusha was pure fast and flexible, Keigo was sturdy, he was strong, and his will burn brighter that a thousand suns, or so he would boast if he were a boasting personality. He smashed and stabbed his way through his batch of enemies. Leaving, just as his brother, non-living materials of his enemies. Not a trace of the flesh, blood, and bone, remained to be seen or detected by any other means. There was even a lack of the stench of death and burnt corpses of any sort.

He was the fire that burned, the will of the flame, the intensity and passion for death and wanton destruction, while at the same time being tempered with the earth aspect of the world. He was aggression and calm at the same time. Two conflicting views, molded and merged together to form an unpredictable foe, and one whom the enemies were unable to react to in time to save their lives. While he may not have been fast, he was able to rid the world of life of more people than his any of his compaions, dispatching five to ten at a time as if it were child's play, and not something to make a big deal out of.

A torrent of flames would shoot out of the tip of his spear when he struck with that end, incinerating a column of his foes, and when slammed the butt of the spear on the ground it caused a small tremor to roll away from him, like a wave in the earth, causing small fissures to form on the ground, swallowing up some of his foes, while unbalancing others.

They each didn't bother counting how many they were facing, simply that they were facing foes that, normally would have given a jounin a hard time. But they weren't mere Jounin were they, they were the best at what they did, and that was what they were doing, among other things anyway.

Shinobu, didn't bother with any weapon and simply used his hands to stifle the life out of his chosen opponents, even the nuke-nin that were mixed into the crowd were dealt with with efficiency. Not a single movement was wasted. Everything was perfectly excecuted, there were no flaws. Had these hired blades known who or rather what they were facing, they might have gone against their own employers, than face embrace of death which they were quickly being swallowed up in.

Shinobu was simply unpredictable in his movements, while everything he did was a form of perfection, there was also no way of knowing just how and when and where he would strike next. Would it be a blow to the solar plexus, a bash to the head, a chop to the neck, a thrust through the chest, and so on and so forth. It was unknown.

Soon the hired blades knew that they were on the losing side, that numbers did not matter in this battle where skill reigned supreme. They had only come to realize just how futile it was for the equivalent of armed civilians to battle against a Kage. Sure he had split himself into four, but that did not mean that each was at a fourth of the total strength. There was also the fact that while his title was Kage, he was still a god among men, an immortal man with centuries worth of experience, be it combat or otherwise.

While his mobile forms were doing battle alongside one another and Zabuza, Ryoku in his meditative state was zeroing in on the three nobles that had sent in those hired blades to sabotage, or at this point in time, simply destroy all the hard work that the workers had put into the project. He planned on making his curse run its course and spread out to the rest of their families that they might be plagued by for generations to come. It would be something akin to a kekkai genkai but not be one, as it was a curse and not something that could be used for personal gain. Kekkai Genkai themselves could be used for personal gain. It was even viewed as an advantage for those that would turn traitor to their clans and or villages to have such an advantage. But enough about that.

Locating them and activating the curse was easy, but how to rid the world of their existences without arousing suspicion or getting other nations involved due to evidences or circumstances that would lead one to believe that ninja were involved in what would surely be viewed as assassinations. An assassination being the covert killing of someone of some importance, it truly was different from just plain old murder.

Like a puppet master pulling the strings, he weaved his magic into the lives of those three noblemen, and controled them to do his bidding just as their hired help were about to go from a full force to zero. He conjured and placed evidence in certain places which would make the rest of the court piece together a conspiracy against the Daimyo concocted by the three of them. But sometime before the plan could be enancted they each suspected one of the other two of betrayal, and had set out to snuff the life out of the suspected betrayer, ending up with three simultaneous deaths via poisoning. Medical investigation would show that the three men had been poisoning each other, until the moment of their deaths. No one else would be blamed, as the poison had been placed in the special bottles which all three men shared with one another, and only with one another, as a sign of trust whenever they met with one another in their homes. A slow acting poison was the best solution that Ryoku could think about at that moment, and it was the one he decided to use. While not necessarily manipulating fate, he did manipulate a lot of things, like circumstance and evidence placement.

When he was done, and his other selves were done with their part of the operation, he cut himself off from the rest of the world, and openned his eyes. Resulting in the removal of himself from his pseudo meditative state of being.

"I heard fighting and was coming to get you," Yomi said, a little breathless as he had run from his tent to where Ryoku had been sitting.

"I know about the fighting, I was there, and it is over," Ryoku said, then informed him about the fates of the those that had decided to act on the thoughts of ruining the nephew of the Umi Daimyo.

"How do you know that it is over?" Yomi asked.

"Ninja thing," Ryoku replied, "Don't worry about it."

"Well..sometime during all the fighting, the project reached completion, and I guess...since you did what you did, however it was that you did it, I guess that means that you can leave for home now," Yomi said.

"I guess so," Ryoku said, "But I'll stay for a little bit longer, as I would like to add a few more things to the proctections of this place, and then some. You could also use the added protection until your actual security force arrives."

#

"So..." Zabuza said, a little unsure of how to strike a conversation with his Kage.

"Ever heard of clones," Ryoku simply said, knowing what was on the swordsman's mind, "And yes, I did speak directly into your mind."

"How did you do that?" Zabuza asked, "Project your voice into the form of thoughts, I mean."

"I could explain it to you, but you wouldn't be able to recreate the technique," Ryoku said, "Think of it as an application of my own special kekkai genkai."

"You have one, then?"

"Something like one, but one which makes me more unique than all the rest, even the Rin'negan is less special compared to my abilities," Ryoku told his subordinate.

"Rin'negan? What's that?" Zabuza asked, he wasn't all that well versed with such thing, not that many people were.

"It is a doujutsu, an extremely rare one," Ryoku explained, "One that can only be weilded by the children of prophecy."

"Uh...I think I'm better off not really knowing all that much about it then..."

"I think so too."

"So how exactly are we getting home?" Zabuza couldn't help but ask, as he wanted to be prepared for any mindless and semi-pointless circling that the two of them would do.

"We'll be going there the normal and regular way," Ryoku said, "Walking ,and riding a boat to get back to Kiri."

"Why such an...ordinary means?" Zabuza asked.

"Because I don't really want to be there when the Exams begin, I just want to reach the end, the part where my presence really matters...but whatever...whenever we get there will be the time that we needed to be be there," Ryoku said, and continued to walk in the direction of a port with a boat heading in the direction of Mizu no Kuni, this one having a boat carrying the Umi Daimyo who would be attending the finals of the Exams, a tournament which would be used to showcase the remaining ninja participants of the exam.


	29. Chapter 29

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter twenty-nine**_

'_Mog_' Ryoku whispered into his Jounin Commander's mind, '_We're on our way home..but it might take a little bit longer than expected.._'

"What?" Mogatari said out loud for his fellow jounins to hear as he was in a meeting with the Jounin captains.

"I said.." one captain began to say, but was cut off by his commander.

"Not you, I heard Mizukage-sama's voice," Mogatari said.

'_I am speaking directly into your mind_' Ryoku stated mentally, '_Kindly inform your companions, lest they think you've gone over the deep end due to all the paperwork._'

"Ah...hehe...sorry about that..Mizukage-sama was speaking directly to me in my mind, and well...I hadn't been expecting it," Mogatari said to reassure his subordinates that he still had enough sanity in him to lead them.

"S'alright Mogatari-soutaichou," one jounin said for lot of them.

"He said that he won't be back for a little while longer," Mogatari informed his subordinates, "It looks like the Exams really will be run by the lot of us. Good luck to us then."

'_Make sure that the perceptions of the other nations consist of us being a bloodthirsty nation, one that is strict and formidable...help cultivate a false reputation, we ARE the bloody mist_' Ryoku ordered his jounin commander, '_The mists are already filled with the smell of lingering death and the feeling of such as well. Make our guests feel welcome, and protected, while at the same time knowing that there is a reason to fear our lovely village._'

"Mizukage's orders are to make sure that Kiri is like a village of monsters," Mogatari said, "We are to be known in the history books as the Bloody Mist, pass this on all the way to the last civilian..which aren't really much as almost everyone knows how to fight offensively and defensively. We are a village of warriors, whose blood makes up just as much of the waters of our nation as water itself does."

"Hai, soutaichou!" the jounins said.

"The mists that surround and defend our home are already filled with lingering death, as do the rest of our country," Mogatari infomred them, "We are to make this ruse seem to be the truth to the outsiders. We will not be looked down on or underestimated. We will be overestimated and feared."

'_The Daimyo himself will have already begun to spread the word of a civil war having taken place, which was the reason for our not participating in the most recent great war,_' Ryoku informed him, '_Remember..to the Daimyo's of the other countries, we are already the Village of the Bloody Mist,there is no turning back now, do not dishonor our Daimyo, or myself._'

"H-Hai Mizukage-sama!" Mogatari said, then addressed the still assembled Jounin captains, "The Daimyo himself has already spread the word of our status as the Village of the Bloody Mist, the story is that the reason for our staying out of the most recent great war was that we had out own internal conflict, a civil war of sorts, with numerous casualties, soaking the mists themselves with blood. This ruse will be easy to form and make known, and is believable, as even though we didn't technically close off our borders, no spy has ever left the mist to say otherwise, and hopefully our secret will be ours to keep until such a time that our Kage or Daimyo deems it necessary for us to simply be powerful and not ruthless and bloodthirsty."

"So..all the evidence has been planted all over the country for the foreigners to pick up, all that remains are the actions and words of our own people?" one jounin questioned.

"Correct," Mogatari said, "All that remains is making sure that all the people play their part right. For the duration of the Chuunin Exams all of Kiri is to show the world that if there is one thing we are good at, it is that we are good at being shinobi."

"What kinds of rumors should be spread beyond our borders or to the foreigners coming our way?" one jounin asked.

'_Zabuza has just gained the name Kirigakure no Kijin,_' Ryoku informed his subordinate as he was listening in on their conversation, '_Some mercenaries had the misfortune of doing battle with him, and in a short period of time, I have been able to find out that some of the minor villages have come to call him by that title. He is a prodigy in ranks, and was at the top of his graduating class. Let is be known, in the form of a rumor, that our genin test is a brutal and violent one. Where Konoha values teamwork, we value strength and ruthlessness, while Zabuza himself is both, he in truth did not massacre his graduating class...you get where I'm going with this hopefully._

Mogatari passed on some more instructions and ideas from the Mizukage pertaining to strengthening the image of the village, and the country itself. Where the forests of Fire Country, of Hi no Kuni, would send out a welcoming feeling to all that entered her, while at the same time showing the world her strength. Where the mountains of Lightning Country, of Kaminari no Kuni, provided unattainability, strength of its own, and a hint of mystery. Where the sands of Wind Country, of Kaze no Kuni, or the earthy terrain of Earth Country, of Tsuchi no Kuni, provided their own fronts and images of what they were. Water Country, Mizu no Kuni, would make it so that all that entered her, passed within her borders would be shrouded with a sense of foreboding, a feeling of fear. The mists swirled around the semi-archipelagic nation, with a lingering atmosphere of death and destruction. A living chaos that had swept the country for as long as the nation had stayed out of the most recent great war.

The Kiri-nin were to cultivate an image that the mists that proliferated their country were not made up of water, but of the blood of their enemies, and of themselves. That the blood of their allies, and their brethren was not wasted for the soil to consume, that the protective mists that hid their beloved village from view held a lot more than simply mist, but the spirits of the dead, forever to watch over the hidden village through the blood that made up the thick blanket of protection.

"You have your orders," Mogatari said, "Meeting adjourned, dismissed."

"Hai!" the jounins all said and left the conference room in an orderly fashion, walking out the doors of the room two at at time, even with all the windows, they knew the proper way to leave and enter such closed spaces.

When all were away, and the Jounin Commander was the only one left in the room, he renewed his conversation with his Kage..

"So where are you exactly? And when can I expect you to be back?" Mogatari asked his Kage...

'_We are somewhere in the middle of our journey home...but there have arisen some complications..that I don't think you really need to know about at the moment, as for when we are to return, no later than a week before the finals, you can count on that,_' Ryoku infomred his subordinate and temporary replacement.

"If you say so, sir," Mogatari said, not wanting to sound like a nagger or a worry wart, he left it at that, and went about continuing the duties he had been left with.

#

Somewhere in the middle of the deep blue sea, Zabuza was trying desperately to run for his life away from something he didn't think he'd ever see in his life. While he knew of the existence of summon creatures, this one thing was in no way shape or form a summon creature, it was an actual denizen of the deep blue sea, it was a giant squid, the kind that dragged ships down into its murky depths and did away with those that could have lived to tell the tale of its existence, only leaving those unlucky few that were able to abandon ship before the ship was dragged down.

The reason why he was running for dear life away from the thing was that Ryoku decided that the ship carrying the Umi Daimyo did not deserve to be dragged into the murky deep by such a creature, and had devised a distraction that would save the ship, crew, and passengers from such a drowned fate. But the cost would be for himself and his subordinate to relentlessly run around the sea in circles until the beast finally gave up, and swam away. Which didn't look like it would happen any time soon as Zabuza seemed to only be a ble to run literally in circles, much like a cartoon character, forming a whirlpool in the middle of the sea or ocean, which ever one would prefer to call their location.

Ryoku himself didn't have to worry about running as he had literally dunked his subordinate in some kind of sauce like thing, one which was sure to attract squids from miles around. It was a kind of squid aphrodisiac and a little bit of something else. The giant squid was just the only thing large enough that Zabuza could see above the water's surface. Underneath the waves were hundreds, if not thousands, of squid chasing after him, all attracted by whatever it was that Ryoku had dunked his subordinate into.

It wasn't like Zabuza could complain, as he didn't want to find out the consequences of disobeying his superior's orders or doubting his Kage for that matter. He was told that he should view it as some sort of honor, running away from thousands of squids to save the lives of the passengers and crew of a ship bound for their homeland of Mizu no Kuni.

So while the Demon of the Mist ran in circles forming a whirlpool to rival Charybdis or however it was spelled, Ryoku simply sat on a beach chair, under and umbrella, on an Avatar made island and watched his subordinate continue running, and running, and running. He lay down in the shade, relaxing, and drinking pina coladas, as well as ate some fruits that he created for his own pleasure. He did occasionally throw some energy Zabuza's way, as it wouldn't do for one of his shinobi to die on him, during a mission.

It was only when an Ushi-Oni, or an octopus-bull hybrid of a creature to arrive and join in on the chase did Ryoku jump up and decide to aid his accomplice in the fun. It wouldn't do for Zabuza to be brutally violated by a demonic entity before bagging himself a girl, or at the very least getting a real taste of some tail.

He'd already managed to do battle with the Ichibi, Sanbi, and whatever the hell that slug like thing was, as well as the rabbit looking kitsune, to name a few, what was one ushi-oni to add to the list, unless he had already dealt with the thing before, and had just forgot. But whatever the answer to that question may be, he did decide to jump in as he knew for a fact that no one short of, aside from himself, a Hoshigaki would be able to singlehandedly stall the massive thing until some major reinforcements arrived. Ryoku didn't need reinforcements though, he just needed some form of creativity, as well as the opportunity to deal some demonic damage to such a demonic creature.

'_You might want to speed it up a little bit, as there's more than squids chasing after you right now, and don't look back...on second thought look back,_' Ryoku mentally informed Zabuza as he took his sweet time walking to the whirlpool.

A few seconds after advising his subordinate to look behind him as he ran, the whirlpool grew even faster as Zabuza picked up a lot of speed, augmenting his legs with a Kage load of chakra. It was like a badly thought up anime, as Zabuza decided that not only was running important, but so was shouting or screaming..

"AIEEEEEEE! Tentacle monster! I'm not into that sort of shit! Mizukage-sama! Help me!"

Of course by that time, Ryoku was no longer paying any attention to his subordinate, as he believed that his subordinate had enough survival instinct in him to avoid getting captured and held aloft by those many tentacles of the Hachibi, along with those of the thousands of swimming squid, and a number of jellyfish that had decided to join in on the fun as well.

"Hey! Don't grab me there!" Ryoku heard as while he slowly walked to the edge of the whirlpool. He was too deep in thought to notice his that his companion did not have enough experience dealing with such overwhelming numbers and unfathomable odds to come out unscathed. He only noticed once he heard the scream.

"Don't put your tentacle there!"

Ryoku had stopped dead in his tracks, literally dying of shock for a few seconds only to have Crius and Alex slam him back to life, as his eyes landed on the scene playing out before him. He never was one for such atrocious behavior, or such public displays of whatever. It was just so disturbing that he couldn't help but just watch instead of help the poor man out.

"Put your tentacle there!"

One of the mysteries of life was unfolding before his very eyes, and it was both a humbling and mentally scarring experiences for Zabuza but not for the audience consisting of Ryoku. One would think that after watching one of the seven swords being rammed into something that was not meant to receive its pleasure would have prompted the co-creator into acting. But it did not, as Ryoku was only able to continue to stare, to look on as his subordinate was used and abused in such ways that he feared actually including it in the mission report he would have to write upon his return to the village. He didn't think that anyone that would read the report would be able to stomach the horrors he and Zabuza would witness to, Zabuza being on the receiving end of the horrible experience.

"GREAT KAMI-SAMA! MAKE THE PAIN STOP!"

Ryoku moved his head to the side by an inch to avoid getting hit by Zabuza's zanbatou, as it flew through the air after being dislodged from who knew where, and Ryoku really didn't want to know, but due to protocol he would eventually be forced to find out. He stood dumbfounded by what he was bearing witness to. It even got to a point that his own control had slipped and he began to sink into the waves as his concentration was broken due to the events unfolding right before his very eyes.

"MIZUKAGE-SAMA! SAVE ME!"

Sure Ryoku heard that, it was his title in the village after all, as well as his rank in the system, not that it did him much justice. But just realizing that he heard his subordinate's pleas for help, he really couldn't do anything, since his subordinate seemed to be half enjoying himself. He really didn't know of anything that could end the situation without permanently harming his subordinate...

"I'm telling Mei on you!"

Ryoku simply continued to watch Zabuza fall into the abyss known as the Hachibi's mouth, and watched as he was swallowed by the massive creature, as well as continued to stare and look on as the whirlpool shrunk, slowed, and eventually died. The squid left soon after along with the numerous jellyfish, leaving only Ryoku standing neck deep in the sea and the Hachibi simply watching him with a little bit of confusion.

"...!"

"Oh fine..." Ryoku said in exasperation, not that he was exasperated or anything like that, so he rose back to the surface of the sea, then simply pointed at the Bijuu, and incanted, "Reducto! Stupefy!"

Two beams of light shot out of his finger and slammed into the chest of the beast sending it flying in the direction of Kaminari no Kuni. But before it could get that far, Ryoku ran up to it and delivered a swift and devastating kick to its crotch just as the spells slammed into it.

"Accio Momochi Zabuza!" he incanted remembering that a subordinate was still in the monster's gut. The effect was instantaneous, as he was able to see Zabuza forcefully get ripped out of the monster's gut and soar at breakneck speed in the direction of Ryoku's now outstreched hand. But instead of physically catching his companion, he caught the man with a branch of a tree he had decided to grow in the middle of nowhere, and allowed the tree to grow and turn into an island, a sngle organism kind of island. A tree that would put anything the Senju had ever been able to do for Fire Country.

"Domo arigato gozaimasu Mizukage-sama!" Zabuza said while trying to bow, trying only since he was still being held up by a branch of the massive tree-island, but also pleaded, "Can we please never do that again. I've seen horrors no man deserves to witness...even though I can admit that some of the stuff I've seen and experienced would make for an incredibly cruel genjutsu."

"I'll think about it," Ryoku simply said, "We'll rest here for a while, before heading back to the mainland."

"What exactly did you do?" Zabuza asked, not fully comprehending what his boss had done exactly, his mind unable to wrap itself around the fact that his boss had made a tree grow somewhere trees just did not grow, and to a size that was not normal, and to serve a purpose that was unheard of for a tree.

"I made a tree grow in the middle of the deep blue, and made it grow to the extent that it can now serve as an island, I'll have to station some ANBU over here when everything gets back to normal," Ryoku said, all the while smiling at his handywork.

"So...does this tree have anything worth eating, aside from the leaves?" Zabuza asked after a few minutes of internal contemplation.

"Nearly everything that you can think of...from healthy medicinal things...to...things that could literally kill a village worth of people in one bite," Ryoku said, and had the tree drop Zabuza from his perch, "So make sure you don't eat anything that looks absolutely harmless."

"Why harmless?"

"Because the truly harmless ones are the ones protected by thorns, vines, and all sorts of other sadistic crap that I could think up at the time of the tree's creation," Ryoku said.

'_Nearly everything huh...well lets see if that is true.._' Zabuza thought to himself, and went off in search of his sword which he was sure was somewhere on the island, as well as wishing for something out of his nightmares to actually be on the island as that would prove that nearly everything that was edible was indeed there.

Ryoku decided to construct a mini-village for future uses while his companion went of on his quest for whatever the hell he wanted to find as proof of Ryoku's claim about the tree-island.

"Mizukage-sama! Save me from the Tomato-monster! Its trying to eat me!" Zabuza's shouts and screams broke the peaceful atmosphere that had settled over the island seventeen hours after the Hachibi had been blasted all the way back over to Kaminari no Kuni.

'_Haha! That'll teach you that wishful thinking is not always a good thing!_' Ryoku sadistically and mentally told his partner in the mission, and opted to simply continue with the construction of the village, _'Think of something to combat the little red things.._'

"Mizukage-sama! There's a cucumber monster too! Help ME!"


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty**_

One would think that an S-ranked mission was something that needed to be taken with the utmost seriousness. But not when the client just happened to be a man that had a grudge against one of Konohagakure's premier shinobi. The client had been married once, but the shinobi in question had stolen her heart and never given it back. It also didn't help that the client's wife had filed for divorce, which made the woman the ex-wife of the client.

The shinobi in question did not peep in hotsprings or ride around on a fat ass toad. No, he was a reknowned shinobi that had pale skin, black hair, and a tongue that women loved having rove over them. His name was Orochimaru, and he was a bisexual shinobi with a fondness for a lot of things that most people did not approve of. Contrary to popular belief he did not have a thing for little boys, or little girls even. He liked them to at least be at an age that would not label him as a cradlerobber or in the same league as that criminal pedobear.

Kaguya Shiki and Terumi Mei had been briefed on their mission by their client. They were to track down and deal as much bodily harm on Orochimaru as they possibly could, and provide proof of their accomplisment by bringing him something nigh irreplaceable to the serpent, his complete reproductive system, minus one nut, just in case the man had access to a capable medical fascility and staff. It wouldn't do to be overly cruel and not give the man a chance to further his genes, and pass on his traits to the next generation.

The problem was actually getting to the Snake Sannin, the two really didn't know where to start, and how to go about beating the snake out of the Sannin. It was a really challenging task. Even with all the connections and people that the Mist had hanging around the rest of the continent, pin pointing the location of the Sannin was a challenge in its own right, as none of the three ever stayed in the same spot for more than a week, and sometimes even shorter than that.

It was a good thing that even with his bone white hari and complexion Shiki was able to fit into a crowd and not stand out, he even manged to suck up his pride and hide his clan tattoos with some make-up, easier to hide things sometimes with a simpler method as compared to the supposedly all powerful as they seemed genjutsus. Mei didn't really have any problems fitting into the crowd, the only reason she ever stood out in Kiri was the fact that she was the personal assistant of the Mizukage. Their swords also weren't a problem as they were sealed into tattoos, easy access that way, and not a hassle to hide in plain sight.

"Why was I chosen for this mission again?" Mei asked her companion as they looked over a town that some of their contacts had informed them of having a Sannin present in, which one none could say.

"It was because the client heard about something you did to a wife-stealer in Kiri, and it took no less than Mizukage-sama no less to stop you from ending the man's life," Shiki said, "That man being an S-class nuke-nin himself, in case you've already forgotten."

"Ok..what about you?" she asked him.

"His ex-wife is my second cousin, and I'm the only Kaguya he knows personally," Shiki replied, "Now can we get back to looking for the Sannin?"

"Ye...Look over there! By the water tower!" Mei said suddenly, she pointed in the direction she was talking about, and lo and behold, there were indeed Sannin...two of them, and not one. Both of the men of that particular group to boot.

The two men that they had spotted were partaking in a glaring contest, not one of them being noticed by any passersby due to their killing intent flooding the area they were in. The only reason why Mei had spotted them was due to the unnatural amount of KI in that area, and the fact that her eyes landed there after her little chat with her partner.

"Do we go and engage now?" Shiki asked.

"Why not? The target is distracted after all," Mei said, and began to dash off in the direction of the two Sannin.

They had been perched on a rooftop of a hotel taller than the water tower which the two Sannin were near. They rushed, more like jumped from rooftop to rooftop, droping their disguises, and summoning their swords. They molded their chakras, and made sure to coat their blades with their power. They were about to go against a Kage-level shinobi, one whose skill and expereienced matched that self-same title. It was like going to war, with the odds stacked against them, but they were two of the Seven, the Legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. There was no place or time to falter, or to lose any modicum of confidence. It was time to act, and in a small way, show the world just what Kiri-nin could do.

They were the masters of the art of silent killing, oen of whom had the most practice in stealth as she had to deal with making sure that their Kage did not sneak off to goof off even though he always delighted in finishing his paperwork.. She also had the most expereience in escaping from a man that could view the world, and find out all of its secrets. With such experience and skill, she made sure that she and her accomplice would not be detected by the two greats they were about to engage, for how else could one hope to battle one of them when they were both close to the other.

The two Sennin were too busy glaring intently at one another that they failed to react to the presence and attack delivered by the two Kiri-nin. They were each sent their separate ways by the sword thrusts delivered by the two kiri-nin, both of whom were not aiming to kill but aiming to incapacitate, and brutalize severely.

Kaguya Shiki and Terumi Mei appeared standing where the two Sennin previously were, each of them holding onto their swords, the symbols of their ranks within the Village Hidden in the Mists. Shiki inherited the blade of Koori Kani his predecessor, the blade was tri-pronged, similar in appearance to the kunai used by the infamous Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou. Mei on the other hand had a blade that simply looked to be a normal katana, but once chakra flowed through it and not simply coating it, it transformed into a whip, a flexible blade that could do more than simply cut. Mei's sword was still in its 'sealed' state.

"You take on Orochimaru, while I take on Jiraiya," Mei said, confident in their ability to no die as they each faced a single legendary foe.

"Wouldn't it be better if I took on the pervert while you take on the lizard?" Shiki said, "I mean your sword is more suited to battling with a serpent, while mine, while not appropriate for such a battle would be better suited against such a sage-ish foe."

"Shiki, take care of our target, I've been dying to try my hand at breaking a pervert for some time now," Mei said, preparing herself for launch, "What better way to get a name than beat up such a man, and I'm sure Ryoku-kun would approve of my choice of opponent."

"Ryoku-kun? You dare call the Mizukage that?" Shiki said as he too prepared to engage his own opponent, both Konoha-nin were also preparing themselves for the about to begin battle for what they believed to be survival.

"I'll tell you why once we're done with these two," Mei promised as she dashed in the direction of the Gama Sennin, while Shiki followed suit but in the direction of the Hebi Sennin.

The Gama Sennin was not entirely unprepared for the direct assult on his being, he had quickly formed a defense with a wall of earth which he thought would protect him from such a straight blade. He was wrong in his assumption for not only did the blade find its mark, but its weidler had managed to smash through the wall with brute strength alone, possibly powered by the rage that all women were able to feel and fuel their limbs with in the presence of a known pervert.

"Who are you?" Jiraiya demanded as he dodged each strike with not as much ease as he would have liked, the blade sure was as unpredictable as its weilder, "And why are you attacking me? The wars are over, or has Kiri decided to start one?"

"As I recall from my history classes, Konoha lost its last attempts at invading my country," Mei said, "Why would we need to attack someone below us in power. You may have the prestige from the last war, but only Kiri can boast being impenetrable by spies as well as still being an unknown since you do not know a member of the Seven."

"Ha! One of the Legendary Seven! No way! You don't fight in such a way that I would deem you as legendary!" Jiraiya mocked, trying to infuriate his opponent in the hopes that she would relent n the viciousness of her attacks.

She opted not to respond to the man's immature taunting, it was beneath her, if she could sneak past the man that had trained and recognized the founding fathers of the world as it was today, then how could she not be something or someone legendary in her own right. There was also the fact that she was his fiance. She opted to simply become even more aggressive, her blade striking true several times, shredding the man's pride as well as his clothes at the same time.

"Yeowch!" Jiraiya exclaimed as the blade managed to nick the tip of his little serpent, "That's cutting it a bit close you know!" He paused a while in thought, not paused in movement, but in thought, than came up with an absurd conclusion, "You just want to see me naked don't you? Why didn't you say so, I can strip for you if you like."

On the otherside of the battlefield, Orochimaru was faring even worse than his former comrade, he had been on the run for weeks now, and was not about to lose his freedom to an upstart Kaguya, one which he had no idea still existed, he had thought that the only Kaguya left was that one he had working for him in one of his bases outside of Fire Country. Apparently he was sadly mistaken in that regard as he found out just as the battle started. It was also a bad thing that the Kaguya he was battling was related to that one woman he had charmed and seduced some time ago.

Insulting a man was one thing, but insulting and insinuiting a lot of other things with regards to family members of said man was another thing entirely. It was a bad thing for the snake to believe that making a man angry in the middle of battle was a bad thing for the man, and a good thing for him as normally such people in enraged states tended to lose focus. But not Kaguya Shiki, as not only did his attacks grow more refined, but there was a reason why fighting a man with a limitless supply of bones was a bad thing. The kenjutsu styles of the Kaguya were named after plants, flowers specifically, for a reason. That being that their bodies served as a garder's tools, while their bloodline served as the seeds for a garden made out of bones, the garden itself being the surrounding areas.

By the time that Orochimaru heard his best friend scream about his pecker being nicked, he had lost most of his clothing in his pursuit to escape the psychotic Kaguya and his tri-pronged blade, as well as all of his limbs. He was left slithering on the ground like the snake that he was, luckily he had already perfected that technique of his that would allow him to instantly grow a new body, or shed his skin like that of a snake.

"That's a big sword you've got there, compensating for something? Is it too small for that lovely lady you have with you?" Orochimaru decided to taunt.

"Want to see what a real boner is like so much?" Shiki finally snapped, really snapped, "I'll show you a boner! I'll make you scream!"

With that proclamation, Shiki temporarily forgot about his mission, and simply grew a forest's worth of shafts of bone and sent them sailing, some of which he thrusted himself, in the direction of Orochimaru, as the man realized his mistake in judgement as he evaded all of the stiff projectiles headed his way. One of which managed to slam into his own crotch, severing what organic matter which attached his precious with the rest of his body. While he would be able to grow the whole thing, added to growing his limbs, back again, it was still the most painful experience of his life, even more painful than what he experienced when Senju Tsunade kicked him in the balls on her first try with that super strength technique of hers.

"I loathe this part of the mission," Shiki said as he approached the downed and in pain Sennin, he then scooped up the reproductive system of the man, and sealed it in a scroll, "I've brought back whatever honor you stole from my clan, and taken the required items from your person for my client. Hunt him down and I will personally make sure that not a single shred of your being is left in this plane of existence. Are we clear?"

"Crystal.." Orochimaru managed to say before returning to silently screaming due to the pain, '_Oh the pain!_'

After hearing of Jiraiya's offer, Mei relented in her attacks, and even sheathed her blade, and sealed it away that as it was no longer needed. She took a step back from the man.

Jiraiya believed that he was off the hook, that he was scott free, and that the woman who had been assutling him rather violently really did want to spend some quality time with him. He believed that she saw his worth in the world, and that he truly was Kami's gift to women, and that she had fallen for him. His ego knew no bounds, but he had to think everything over when he noticed her suddenly disappear, only to reappear in front of him, her arm extended, and him flying as the force of her punch had been one that could possibly rival his own female teammate's.

The torture that Mei decided to perform on the white haired male didn't end there. She quickly ran after him and jumped up to his flying form and kicked him in the gonads for good measure as well as directing his flight path in the direction of the nearest FEMALE ONLY baths. Him landing in the water surprising the bathing women, and her landing on him afterwards, where she along with her fellow sisters, beat the crap out of him. He temporarily was transported to heaven and hell, and even caught a glimpse of a smirking Ryoku while in his trips between living and dead realms.

By the time Mei was through with the pervert of perverts, she exited the bath, leaving Jiraiya still inside at the mercy of the women there, sporting more injuries than the Iwa army that faced off against the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou. Shiki was waiting for her outside of the establishment with their things as they had gotten what they had gone to the place for, and needed to get the evidence of the completion of their mission to their client as soon as possible that they may be able to return to Kiri in time for the games, hopefully without incident.

"I think you might have over did it a little bit, while dealing with that man," Shiki said as they casually walked in the direction of Nami no Kuni.

"I don't think so..some of my friends said they caught him peeping on them during one of their out of the country missions," Mei told her companion, "Add that to the fact that he suggested some rather lewd things, when Ryoku-kun hears of the things he said, we might really have a Fourth Great Shinobi War on our hands."

"Ah, that reminds me," Shiki said remembering their previous conversation, "Why do you refer to Mizukage-sama with the -kun honorific? You don't happen to have a crush on him do you?"

"Since I promised to tell you, I will," Mei said, steeling herself for any possible reaction, "He's my fiance."

Shiki did not react in the way Mei had been expecting him to. She expected some form of verbal reaction, one of incredulity at the validity of such a statement. But what she got surprised her just as much as her revelation shocked him. Shiki had stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her, complete with goldfish mouth gapping open, that flies were tempted to fly in, but the instinctul knowledge that these rational animals were in the killing business made them think things through and opt not to die and enjoy the remainder of their week long lives as flies.

"Hey, Shiki," Mei said as she shook his shoulder in an attempt to get him out of his revelation induced stupor, "Shiki, snap out of it. You ok?"

While Mei grew increasingly worried about her mission partner, Shiki himself was swimming in uncertainty, and a mix of other emotions, none of which were jealousy or anger. He was perplexed how such a thing had occurred without his knowledge, or without the knowledge of the rest of the village. Why had such information been witheld from the rest of the village. Why were there only two of them on the mission, surely there should have been more as Mei was apparently such an important individual to the village's Kage.

When Mei got bored over worrying over the Kaguya, she decided to strip his companion down to his boxers, seal his clothes, hogtie him, and finally drag him in the direction of their destination until he got himself out of the news induced stupor.

They reached their client in record time, and still the Kaguya was unaware of all the stares he had received from his present state of undress. Their client didn't really bat an eye as Mei brought the hogtied man into his office in his home.

"Good work you two, and thank you, I'll be sure to add in a bonus for such speedy work," their client said as he bid them farewell.

After that it was only a matter of time until Mei and Shiki got back into the now dubbed bloody mist. Their ride home had actually passed within viewing distance of a battle between what appeared to be two men and an army's worth of squid and possibly an octopus. By this time Shiki had gotten out of his funk, and they both decided that they had enough excitement for one mission and chose not to go and investigate the rather odd nautical occurrence, had they decided to investigate they would have found Ryoku watching as Zabuza fooled around with a bunch of tentacle monsters.


	31. Chapter 31

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-one**_

Almost every hidden village in the elemental continent had sent at least one representative to the Village Hidden in the Mists for the first ever Chuunin Exam. It was a historical event that could not be ignored, but of course not one of the foreigners came without an escort of sorts. Some of the Daimyos from other lands had come as well as this would be the first time that any foreigner, no matter how politically power, would be able to step foot into and view the wonder that was Kirigakure no Sato.

Genin from all over the shinobi world were greeted at the main gate by one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, one that went by the name of Kurosaki Raiga, weilder of the lightning blades, blades that acted in a way like lightning rods. They were able to spot some of the visible defenses of the village, those being the jounin that patrolled the walls for any sign of trouble be it coming from the outside and from within.

While all that entered the village felt relieved that the stench of death and violence left once within the safety of the walls, they also moments later realized that they had entered the lion's den, they had entered the Village Hidden in the Mists. It was a village of battle hardened warriors, the likes of which could probably only be seen in such a country as the birth place of all Kekkai Genkai. There wasn't a shinobi alive that had never heard of Kiri's claim. This was a village of trained killers, of murderers whose hearts were said to no longer exist once they had passed the trials of becoming Genin themselves. Many of the delegates had heard of rumors, of tales of the Kiri no Kijin who had killed off all the other Genin hopefuls during his graduation exam, who still managed to remain a a shinobi of Kiri. There were also tales of the Monsters of the Mist, Hoshigaki Kisame, who was said to have tried his hand at assassinating the Daimyo's family for no other reason other than it was fun, but he still remained one of the village's top shinobi.

The latest delegation to arrive at the gates of Kiri was none other than the delegation from Konohagakure no Sato, one of the two villages that thought to invade after the founding of Kiri. The Kumo delegation had already arrived and the citizens of Kiri didn't have a hard time showing forms of hostility towards that delegation, after all Kumo had tried to invade several times, one time managing to rid the world of one of Kiri's most loyal of allies, scattring that clan run nation to the four winds.

The Konoha delegation was made up of two Genin cells, their jounin senseis, and a few back up jounin, plus one of the Sannin. Tsunade herself had decided to visit Kiri since her only remaining loyal teammate was unavailable for this mission of infiltration.

"Welcome to Kirigakure no Sato, Konoha delegation," Raiga said as per protocol though he didn't like it, he still had to do it, "I have a few forms I need all of you to sign before I permit you to enter the rest of the village," he then handed out said forms, all of which would make sure that the foreign delegation would be accountable for any actions they took while in the village, save for ones taken during the exams themselves by the Genin.

"We weren't aware that there would be such things needed to be signed to enter the village," Tsunade said on behalf of her comrades, "Is this standard protocol?"

"It is for foreigners," Raiga said, "If you do not comply, then I will have to take it as a sign that you are here not for the exams but for some sort of invasion or something along those lines. Please give me a reason to sound the alarm."

By that point, Raigo was fingering one of the handles of his swords, in preparation for some bloodshed, the Jounins on the walls, were also preparing themselves for the possible eventuality that the Konoha delegation would do something stupid.

"We'll sign," Tsunade said and glared at her comrades assuring that no one argued with her on such a decision.

"Too bad," Raiga said, signaling his comrades to stand down and return to what they were doing, "We were prepared for the chance to spill tree hugger blood today."

"What do you have against the Leaf?" one Genin asked out of the blue after signing his forms, all of them.

"Your village tried to invade ours back when there still was no Kage," Raiga informed the genin.

"Huh? When was that?" the genin asked.

"Such an ignorant child, prodigy or not," Raiga said, "For a Hyuuga you seem to be very carefree."

"Yeah, what of it?" the Hyuuga said.

"Since your village hasn't deemed fit to inform you of the alteractions between Kiri and Konoha, I will enlighten you," Raiga said, as he collected the other completed forms and had a clone file them, "Sometime after the Clan Wars ended and the Hidden Villages were founded, your village tried its hand at invading Mizu no Kuni, just as Kumo and Kaminari no Kuni tried to do so as well. Obviously your side lost a lot of forces to ours. It was quite the battle or so I've been told."

"Tsunade-sama is that true?" the Hyuuga beat his comrades to asking the question.

"Yes..it was a covert operation, one which Konoha cares not to remember," Tsunade confirmed the validity of the story.

"We have a team prepared to guide you to your hotel," Raiga said and motioned for the just arrived hunter-nin team to come closer and deal with the Leaf-nins, "Just remember that Kiri dislikes Konoha just as much as we dislike Kaminari no Kuni, if you can remember that, then you'll live to see the aftermath of the Exams."

When the Konoha team had finally left, Raiga radio'd in his latest conversation..

"Mogatari-san, the Konoha team has just left the gate area, and are heading for their hotel," Raiga reported, "Most notable of members of the delegation is one Senju Tsunade."

'_I've marked her on the map, keep up the good work, Mogatari out_' Mogatari replied via the link formed by the ingenious map of the village.

The hunter-nin assigned to the Konoha delegation informed them that after they had settled in, they were free to roam the village, but were obviously restricted from entering certain areas in the village. The hunter-nin had infomred them that a member of the military would inform them if they were about to enter one of these restricted areas.

"Do what you will, but mind where you go," Tsunade told her comrades, "And remember to go everywhere in pairs, it wouldn't do for out hosts to get the jump on us."

"Hai!" the Konoha-nins replied, and some even prepared to get out of their hotel room and explore the village.

Without actually following her own order, Tsunade went off on her own, wondering if there was a chance for there being a casino or something similar in such a village as Kiri, and lo and behold, she just so happened to actually stumble upon one, one of many as she was soon to find out.

It didn't take long for her to become broke and in debt to the first gambling den, but as quick as she grew unfortunately poor, she was able to win it all back. Then she moved on to the next gambling hall, and the next, and the next, until someone decided to step in and prevent her from losing even more credibility in the eyes of the gamblers.

"I know for a fact that you wouldn't gamble with lives..but you seem to have no problem gambling with the funds entrusted to you by your team," Asano Todoh, a jounin with black hair wearing the standard jounin attire of all villages, said as he grabbed hold of Tsunade's wrist as she was about to enter one more gambling hall. He also just so happened to uncannily resemble Tsunade's lost love which was why she let him lead her away from her favorite form of entertainment.

Their destination was the lake beside the Mizukage Tower, where some farmers were busy harvesting pearls from the oyster farm. There were even a few Ootori clan members helping with the harvest.

"Now...I find it a little disturbing that one of the Densetsu no Sannin would follow an unknown individual," Todoh said as he lead her over and sat down on a bench overlooking the lake.

"I...Yes..it is..isn't it..its just that you look like someone from my past," she said, sounding a little defeated, and showing a little bit of shame at acting in such a way.

"Ah..I apologize if the way I look has brought back some painful memories," Todoh apologized.

"So..are you going to tell me why you brought me here?" she asked him, "Not that I mind the view."

"Actually, just as I remind you of someone from your past, you reminded me of someone from my own," he said, "Ah..hehe...I'm actually going against orders by deciding to spend some time with you."

"You were actually ordered to stay away from me? Just because I look like some dead girlfriend of yours?" she asked him a little shocked by his statement.

"Well not exactly," he said, "I, I mean all ninja of Kiri, are not to act nicer than protocol dictates towards any guests such as yourself. In any case, I would advise you against visiting another one of those gambling dens, your team might be disappointed with you."

"Why do you care exactly, aside from my looks, we're practical strangers you know," she said.

"Ah..I don't really know exactly..." he admitted.

"Wont you get in trouble with your superiors by doing what you're doing?" she asked, sounding a bit concerned since he seemed to be a nice guy.

"Probably...not that it really matters, I doubt my superior would..ahh...perhaps he would..." he said trailing off at the end.

"Would what?" she said, then sensed that they were surrounded, "This was your plan all along, wasn't it!"

"I..I don't know what you're talking about!" he said in his defense.

"Sheesh...are we interupting something?" one of the jounin made herself visible.

"Kara...what do you want?" Todoh asked his cousin.

"Why cousin, we were just looking for you of course, you're late for the meeting," she said, and asked as an afterthought, "Who's your lady friend?"

"Ah..cousin..this is Senju Tsunade of Konoha," Todoh introduced his companion, "I'm in trouble aren't I?"

"Senju-san, keep our actions to yourself, tell no one not even your Hokage else Kiri might be forced to start the Fourth Great Shinobi War," Kara said, "You wouldn't want to be the cause for that, or would you?"

"I wont say a word," she said, even though she was THE Senju Tsunade, there was no way she would be able to win in enemy territory.

"Good, you may continue to see my cousin in the future," Kara said, "Now come along Todoh."

"I'll follow, you guys go on ahead," he said, and waited for them to leave before apologizing to Tsunade, "I'm really sorry about that...see it wasn't some weird trap, set up by the Asano clan...sorry about the trouble...can we meet again?"

"Um..sure..I guess..but could you tell me what this meeting you are attending is about?" she asked, everything even her company has a price after all.

"Hmm...we haven't exactly finalized the tests of the exams yet...that's what the meeting is about, I guess I could tell you how it goes..its not like Mizukage-sama will kill me if I share some things..." he said, then absentmindedly added, "..He might bucket me though.."

"Bucket?" she asked him curious.

"Its a form of punishment that Mizukage-sama dishes out...it also defies many scientific laws," he said, "Look, I really gotta go..so..I'll find you when I'm done with the meeting, and remember not to go gambling."

"Ok," she said.

Asano Todoh was the last of the elite Kiri-nin to arrive at the designated warehouse where the meeting would be taking place. No mere conference room would be able to fit in all the shinobi present, unless of course Ryoku got around to making an expanding room of some sort, or something like the Room of Requirement.

Lining the walls of the warehouse were a number of mirrors and paintings, the paintings were of shinobi that had died in the line of duty, and were from seemingly all over the shinobi world. They were seemingly alive too. There were even a number of replicas of them all over the continent in the most unlikeliest of places too. Ryoku had managed to replicate the paintings of his world in this other world of his.

The mirrors served as a means of communication with offices, departments, outposts, and the like that had shinobi that were unable to attend the meeting. Some of the mirrors were magically linked with smaller handheld versions carried by some of the ANBU operatives that they might be able to share their input during the meeting while out on mission.

"Finally! Todoh take a seat that we may begin," Mogatari said as he spotted Todoh enter the warehouse through one of the windows.

"Sorry for being late Mogatari-sama!" Todoh shouted as he made his way to his squad, which consisted of his clansmen, and to think he was taichou/captain of the squad.

"Right then," Mogatari said, "Let me recap. For the first part of the exam it has been agreed that it will be an information gathering test, one conducted in a classroom setting of sorts, the Chuunin will obviously be overseeing this portion with only one 'jounin' as the proctor. The first part will be in the form of a written exam, with Chunin mixed into the groups of genin, half of whom will have the right answers, while the other group will have wrong answers. The test will not only test the information gathering skills, but also the ability to tell the real from the fake. Does anyone have any suggestions for the part on how to test the ability to make decisions?"

"How about threatening the genin or something like that?" one Jounin shouted from somewhere in the warehouse.

"That's too cliche!" an ANBU said via one of the mirrors.

"How about a question that actually needs some kind of physical activity to be performed!" a chunin asked, the Chunins were located closer to the center of the warehouse where the commanders were seated and where Mogatari did his thing.

"That could work," Tamago mused from his seat where he was taking the minutes of the meeting.

"Would you kindly elaborate Tamago-san," Mogatari requested.

"Sure," Tamago said, and took Mogatari's place on the platform, "After all those pathetic enough to get caught cheating have been filtered out, the proctor will ask for each team to surrender a member, that member will then be taken out of the testing room, to somewhere else to wait," he then paused in thought, then continued, "The remaining members will then be guided to separate room where they will find a blood clone sitting on a chair in the room, and be asked to do one of two things, quit or kill the clone, but they are to be made to believe that the clone is their teammate. How about that?"

"So the written test's fact and false answers will just serve to lower their guard and cause confusion at the same time?" one Chunin asked.

"Something like that," Mogatari said, "If you were present in the last meeting you would have known that too."

"Moving on," Tamago said.

"Yes, moving on," Mogatari said, "All in favor say 'hai'."

"Hai!" all were in favor, the alternative was to get bucket'd.

"Alright, but we better make sure that the clone looks like one of our genin or chunin or something, and that the clone doesn't vanish before the hopefuls leave the room," Mogatari told Tamago, who took note of it.

"We move on to the second part of the exam," Meizu decided to take center stage, "It was agreed by the majority that the this portion would test the genins' abilities as a team, as well as see if they have what it takes physically and mentally to be of use to their village as chunin."

"This part will be the part of the exam where we more of less cut in half the number of hopefuls, in preparation for the tournament style final exam," Tora said, "Any suggestions as to how we can spice things up? It has already been decided that the teams will have to bring a pair of sealed scrolls to the center of _that_ training ground."

"I have a suggestion!" Gensou Touji, a seaweed green haired Jounin with glasses, said.

"Let's hear it Touji," Mogatari said.

"The scrolls, both of them should be held by our people," Touji suggested, "Put those genin in nearly real life or death situations, kill or be killed, with a hint of the use of clones again!"

"Once again, they will be given the choice of killing the people they are taking scrolls from or die, or almost die...hmm.." Todoh said musing aloud, "I kind of like it, it serves its purpose of making us a bloodthirsty village."

"The Asano clan approves of the idea!" Kara decided to shout after hearing Todoh's musing, since he was heir of the clan and therefore could speak for the clan in such a meeting, the clan head was on the Civilian Council a separate entity from the shinobi forces.

"Err..." Mogatari said.

"Us Gensou support out clansman's idea!" Gensou Go shouted, he too had seaweed green hair but wore red tinted sunglasses, he was also a jounin and the heir of the Gensou clan.

"The Shun clan approves! Tamago write it down already!" the Shun clan heir, Shun Maki, shouted.

"The.." Mogatari's nephew was about to shout out the Shigeru clan's approval but was cut short.

"Hey Mog, what do I do?" Tamago asked.

"Just do it Tamago!" Mogatari said in irritation.

"Moving on again," Meizu said, "It seems that we have been forced into doing as Touji suggested, therefore we will have to make full use of our Jounin forces, leaving the Hunter corps in charge of security during that part of the exams."

"Let's traumatize our own genin while we're at it!" Tora suddenly said, "Might as well make everything believeable, we can always apologize to them after the exams, or once they've been taken out of the exams."

"Tamago.." Mogatari began to speak.

"I know, I know, write it down, approve it as if the majority of the members of the meeting have approved it, I got it, I got it," Tamago said as he wrote down everything, as well as the approval, along with everything he himself had said.

"Originally we agreed to have some form of prelimenary tournament," Meizu said, "But now that I think about it, it would be better for the finalists to have absolutely no idea what to expect..."

"The finals will be where our genin are meant to shine," Tora said, "Therefore we should all pitch in and subtley sabotage the training of the other finalists during the month before the actual finals will take place. Just don't kill anyone, or injure to the extent of not being able to participate."

"Any questions?" Mogatari asked, "Or clarifications?"

"I have a question," one of the ANBU via mirrors said.

"Ask away," Mogatari said.

"My question has very little to do with the exams, but anyway," the ANBU said, "I just got back from my mission and stumbled upon this really cute Kumo Jounin..would it be alright if I courted her?"

"Taichou!" another ANBU made her presence known via another mirror, "I can't believe I have to write the mission report so you can oggle some Kumo bitch, right after I dumped you for cheating on me on that hime."

"But that was part of the mission! And why should you care at who I want to date, you already dumped me," the male ANBU said.

"Meizu, this is a public forum and not a place for ANBU of all people to bicker about their love lives," Tora whispered.

"I know, but what can I do, Mog asked for questions and clarification," Meizu whispered back.

"Do I..?" Tamago said.

"Write it down, write it down," Kisame whispered to Tamago, his seatmate.

"But.." Tamago began to protest.

"Just do it," Kisame insisted.

"Fine," Tamago decided that it would be healthier to simply comply rather than argue with Kisame.

"...I still say its your fault we almost failed the mission, didn't you read the mission scroll?" the male ANBU said.

"I..whoops..." the female ANBU said, "Can I take back what I said so you don't go after that Kumo bitch?"

"I'll think about it," the male ANBU said.

"Aw c'mon, I'm sorry already Kendo-taichou! I'll take you back!" the female ANBU said.

"You can do that," Meizu said, "Just make sure that the one you decide to court doesn't spill the beans on our true colors before the time is right, the two of you are also demoted back to regular ranks for revealing your identities!"

"Great going Kendo!" Kawa Miura, Chunin, shouted at his brother, "You've lost us some prestige now! Thanks to you as well Isane!"

"Ah shaddap Miura! I lost a bet with the Mizukage's assistant because of this development!" Kuma Mumei, Chunin, said as he kicked his friend from behind, "Hey sis, why'd you have to out your ex in public, and while in uniform too?"

"Its his fault," the now identified female ANBU said referring to Kendo, "He's the one that didn't make me read the mission scroll to make sure I knew everything that was going to happen."

"While I disagree with you Isane," yet another ANBU said from another mirror, "I do have to say that taichou really looked to have been enjoying himself a little too much, but you're ANBU..or were..you should've read the thing, I did."

"If you don't side with me entirely, I'll out you too Nami Kyo," Isane said, "Whoops, looks like you're a Chunin now too."

"I didn't say you'd stay Chunin," Meizu said, "Just Tokubetsu Jounin, carry on."

"Woohoo! I'm a Jounin!" Isane shouted, visibly jumping up and down wherever she was since the scenery kept moving.

"That's beside the point..." Kyo said, removing his mask since he was officially demoted, "Wait..what was the point again?"

"I can't remember," Isane said.

"Alright, that's enough fooling around!" Mogatari shouted, "We got the plans, and so...we'll dish out the instructions, duties, and whatnot a week before the games begin. Dismissed!"

The shinobi and kunoichi simply sat and stared at the the Jounin Commander who stood on the platform.

"Scram!" Meizu shouted as he formed an oyster bomb in one hand ready to launch it in case anyone misunderstood his order.

Among those that ran out of the warehouse were the other commanders save for Mogatari..

"Are you gonna get rid of that or what?" Mogatari asked Meizu who still held up the explosive.

"It's a dud," Meizu said and threw it behind him, and fell flat on his face as the thing exploded.

"I thought you said it was a dud," Mogatari said also on the floor.

"Oops..my bad," Meizu said.

"To think you're the ANBU soutaichou..." Mogatari said, and palmed his face for added effect and for good measure.


	32. Chapter 32

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-two**_

One would think that Ryoku would simply follow through with his plan of returning just in time for the final portion of the Chunin Exams, well he just proved Zabuza wrong when it came to that notion. He had just informed his mission companion that they would be returning to Kiri as soon as possible, as they, Ryoku mostly, would be evaluating the Chunin Exams in the guise of a Genin hopeful, and Zabuza would be forced to help him.

Zabuza had the privilege, though he didn't see how could it be considered such, to be one teammate for his Kage, their other teammate was one of Ryoku's clones, a chibi-fied Shinobu, looking all ninja of old like with his single eye being the only actual body part visible. All three of them were chibi-fied, Zabuza looked like any other punk from the Momochi clan. Ryoku appeared as he did when he himself was eleven. Their jounin sensei was none other than Byakko Ryoku, the white tiger form that aided the Hyuuga in escaping their fate, except in a more humanoid form. The only thing that stood out aside from his eye patch was that he had tiger ears, tiger claws, and a white and black striped tail hanging out of the rear of his pants.

After being informed of their new task, a mission which was approved by the Kage himself, since he thought of the mission on the fly, Zabuza was going to get paid but that still didn't matter in comparision to being carried by his Kage as they sped away in the direction of the village as they needed to meet the deadline for entrants into the exams. As they traveled Ryoku had to create the paperwork within his mind, it was a tiring and grueling task since he had to figure out where the hell they were from, names, and a lot of other things. In the end he decided that they were from some obscure hidden village, Tengakure no Sato in Jin no Kuni. Byakko Ryoku got to keep his name, which was Byakko. Zabuza got stuck with the name Seiryuu, Ryoku decided to name himself Genbu, and Shinobu got the remaining name which was Suzaku which contrasted his personality and uniform.

Their clothing also had to be changed, save for Shinobu/Suzaku as there was no point changing the clothes of someone who was rarely seen anyway. Zabuza had been forced to wear a dark blue wife beater and faded blue cargo pants, his sword was for the very first time altered aka it was shrunk so that his smaller frame could properly use it. Ryoku/Genbu was not in his Taijutsu no Tatsujin clothes or his kage robes as those two costumes would make his stand out more and make him more recognizeable. He had chosen for himself a brown a brown and green camouflage designed cheongsam, he had to also get rid of his eye patch and decided to simply stich his eyelid closed over that particular peculiar eye. His weapon of choice couldn't be his twin blades, therefore he had to settle for a kusarigama.

Before they could even reach the village, they met their first obstable, one which Zabuza had been expecting that they would have to encounter. An ANBU cell returning from a mission. Since the 'genin' cell did not sport a kiri-hitai-ate, the ANBU supposed that it would be alright if one cell didn't compete since their symbol wasn't all that known, not that any village actually had that symbol for their village as Ryoku simply made it up. It was a circle with a single vertical line with an 'N' above the circle almost touching the line.

"I knew, I knew this was going to happen," Zabuza muttered under his breath, but not only did the Ryokus hear it, so did the ANBU.

"Seiryuu kindly remember that you are no silent killer...just stick to using other Suiton Jutsu, your trump card being Suiryuudan no Jutsu, got it?" Ryoku whispered to his comrade, he got a nod in return.

"We're really sorry about this, but one less team will go a long way to making the rest of the world recognize further out greatness," one ANBU said.

Ryoku's mind zeroed in on the one that spoke, and found out through mental probes who the man was, as well as who his companions were, and what they were capable of. The whole cell was made up of non-Bloodline ninja, one of many that were making their way up in the world. Relying on talent and not some gift from an almost god.

After gleaming such information from a mental probe, Ryoku passed on the infomration to Zabuza, along with instructions for the man to run for the village, while Byakko dealt with the stallers. For once on his journey home, Zabuza was more than happy to follow his Kage's orders, the other times just got him into trouble, lots and lots of trouble, in the form of tentacle monsters, and the like.

While he ran alongside his kage and his kage's shadow, he wondered what would be happening to the ANBU, would they simply be having their asses kicked, or something far worse, surely not death, but there were worse things, the bucket being listed as one of them, the others..he didn't really want to dwell on the possibility of their being more. Which there were, Ryoku simply hadn't dished them out yet.

Byakko had the most fun of his life while he personally dealt with the ANBU that tried to sabotage another country's chances at possibly gaining recognition in the First EVER Chunin Exams. He would be able to bust out all the insanely death defying means of torture, those fates worse than death, and those fates which would make one chose death over experiencing them all over again.

There were seven ANBU in the group, and therefore, Byakko had decided to deal them two tortures each before shipping them off to the Kirigakure Hospital in buckets of healing spring water.

The Anbu themselves decided that for an unknown opponent they would have one of their number test him out first, that was their biggest mistake, for after Byakko got a hold of the man, the rest were instantly paralyzed in fear as the Byakko pulled out a dirty sock which looked to not have been washed in over a decade but was still whole. He then grabbed the Anbu by the leg and proceeded to stuff the man into the sock, then fished out a lightning chakra operated blender and placed the sock which still retained its sock shape into the blender and put the setting to max.

He wasted no time and engaged the nearest Anbu member, forcing all the air out of her with a punch to the gut. His fist was sheathed in magic, the kind that gave the receiver of the punch an intense feeling of pleasure. It was a way to ultimately distract the victim from his true intention, which was to bind and gag his victim then he hoisted her up a tree and had her hang from a branch, cover her in honey, and create a bear with one thing on its mind, that being honey, honey, and honey. It wouldn't kill her, but it would look like it was trying to visibly eat her alive.

Once done with his second victim's first torture, he moved on to his third another female of the human species, one which he paralyzed with a incantationless petrificus totalus. He then shoved her into a coffin, one that simply appeared from out of nowhere. Following this action he used the air to cut the coffin into twenty-seven pieces and put the pieces back together again, but not in the right places, which when the reassembled coffin was opened revealed a very weird looking person, one that was scared nearly out of her life as she didn't know how she was alive, and whether or not she was in pain. There was also the fact that she was only in her underwear and her mask.

'_Shit,_' was the single thought that passed through the minds of the remaining unharmed and untouched Anbu members.

Moving on to the fourth victim, Byakko lifted him up and slammed his body against another tree. His next action was to bring out a pair of scissors and cut up the man's uniform, somehow in the middle of it he transformed the Anbu uniform into something a French maid outfit, complete with a change in underwear, it was now that lovely lacy stuff that at some point in time every guy fantasizes about.

The Anbu didn't know how to react in such an outfit. But that didn't mean that that stage of the thing was done. Byakko created some clones of his own, three of them, all of them then turned the Anbu into a living breathing puppet and controlled him using strings and proceeded to take pictures of the man whose pride among other things just flew out the proverbial window as the poses were of him in a number of compromising positions with the identities of his comrades. Henge was such a useful skill.

Byakko's next victim suffered something which the others couldn't really see as possible even in the world that they lived in. Byakko had grabbed the man and slurped him down, sucked him into his gut, using a bendy straw. He then turned the inside of his stomache into something else. It had morphed into a theme park, all the rides' cars or seats were that one Anbu member. He had the chance to experience was being a form of transportation and entertainment felt like.

The sixth member of the group of Anbu had just seen the impossible happen right before his very eyes, and yet he was still paralyzed. He was still gripped by fear, unable to do anything to help his comrades or even escape for that matter. There was nothing he could do but wait for everything to be over. How were they to know that their foe was something else entirely. They just had to pick the team with a power house for a jounin-sensei, one that dare he think it, one close in power and ability to the Mizukage. Little did he know that he was facing the Mizukage himself, one that did not intend to rid the world of their existences, but to simply exercise his gifts.

This man had to suffer something strange, he had suddenly found himself in a room. Alone in a room, one with stark white walls, and opposite his bound and gagged form was a little snow white mouse. The strangest thing or worst thing that he could figure out was how he was positioned. His legs were spread apart and held apart by two white stakes in the ground. Looking down at his crotch area, he noticed to his horror that there was some food there. His eyes immediately darted over to the mouse, and his eyes grew wide as he noticed that the mouse looked emaciated.

The seventh and final member of the group had the fortune of being last. He may not have known what had happened to the guy before him as the man had simply vanished, hopefully to be seen again. He noticed his foe turn to face him, and was actually able to take a step back. But that one step caused him to trip over a root that had not been there previously. When he looked up at the spot that Byakko had been standing, he found out to his horror that the man was no longer there. He then felt a pain at the back of his neck, and his world went black.

When he awoke, he found himself in the body of a young man who was lost, and it was raining. The young man wandered for a while until day turned into night, and he stumbled upon a lonely house on a cliff. The young man asked the owner of the house, an old man with chinky eyes, if he could stay for the night since he was lost. The old man replied that he could, so long as he kept his paws off of his daughter. When the young man saw the daughter, he realized that he was next to screwed. Before leaving the young man in the guest bedroom, the old man warned the young man that should he so much as touch a hair on his daughter's head, the young man would experience the three worst and most painful of all tortures known to man.

Unfortunately for the Anbu he experienced both the pleasures of the daughter through the body of the young man he somehow inhabited and the undeniably painful torture the old man put the young man through. Luckily he only felt what the young man felt, and did not lose what the young man lost.

While the seventh member of the group suffered a pleasure and pain, Byakko moved on back to his first victim, and pulled him out of the blender, and healed him of all of his for some reason not so life threatening injuries. He then proceeded to transfigure the man into a pig, gagged him with an apple, and stuck a stick through his mouth and forced it out of his ass, and roasted him over a fire as the images of hungry wolves salivated at the sight.

The woman that was tied up and hanging above a hungry bear was then transformed into a plushie of Mitarashi Anko, not that Byakko realized it at that time. He then vanished his bear creation and simply conjured a golem that looked like a little girl, and had the golem play tea time with the Anbu.

He moved on to his third victim and returned her body to what it once was, made sure that her clothes were still not back on her. He conjured a mirror and stuck her into it, freezing her eyelids open, turned the mirror invisible, and tranported the mirror and its occupant into the men's shower room of the Chunin apartments, while it was full of virile males, some of whom were relieving themselves of some pent up stress in the quickest way possible due to having to perform duties right after the shower.

The man in the French maid uniform was changed back into what he looked like before the experience. His second torture was being placed under enough killing intent to down the Juubi, but still remain alive while all manner of horrors passed through his thoughts. It was a good thing that Byakko had made sure that none of his present victims could die, no matter what manner of bodily or mental harm befell them.

The one that had turned into carts for the many amusement park rides was barfed out, along with some other unmentionables. With the man out and sputtering in an attempt to get all of the acidic gunk out of his gut, that same gunk that was eating away at his intestines, Byakko quickly deposited the man into a cauldron of boiling shrinking potion, the kind that only works on clothes. Boy did that man's clothes shrink.

Byakko entered the white room with the man still tied up, and still gagged, and the mouse was still there. It hadn't yet gone to the area where all the chow was. While it may have looked hungry, it was not meant to eat the food, but to simply scare the living out of the prisoner. With its task complete, Byakko vanished the contents of the room, and the room itself. He replaced the white room, with one of pure darkness, he also untied the man and ungagged him. Then left the man in the dark with a single lit candle.

The man didn't know how to react, or what to do, so he sat in the dark for a few moment, not even moving towards the lit candle which would and could provide a little bit of comfort for the ordeal ahead. As he waited in the dark for something to happen, he began to believe that this next phase of what he really perceived as torture from a foreign shinobi was eternal silence and a seemingly endless cloak of darkness. The purpose of the candle being something to temp him, but he believed that should be move close to it some kind of trap would be sprung, and he would be even more screwed than he already was.

But it wasn't what he thought it was, after a few minutes he began to hear some scratching and sounds of scurrying. A few minutes later hints of squeaks could be heard, then nibbling, then a mixture of both. But things got really bad when he spotted the first pair of glowing eyes in the darkness, and where one came from there were sure to be hundreds. He was wrong when it came to the number, as what followed was an infinite number of pairs of eyes staring down at him. The sounds grew even louder as every infinity worth of rodent's eyes stared down at him. Such a poor unfortunate soul.

The last member of the Anbu group was suddenly pulled out of his nightmare and left in the middle of a clearing a few meters away from the rest of his team, or at least where his team would be in a few hours. The nightmare had taken its toll on him both mentally, and phantom pain physically. He wouldn't be able to return to normal until his companions were all back in together again. His second and final cruel and unusual form of torture was not the loneliness or the isolation or even the phantom pain from the nightmare that seemed to real to have been real but at the same time too painful to be real, but the pain remained no matter how his subconscious tried to rationalize the experience.

His second torture was that of a form of humiliation, one that would only be experienced in the mind. It was cruel in the sense that hundreds of thousands of faceless people would be laughing at him. It was unusual in the sense that these faceless figments of what would seem to be his imagination would be pointing at him, and some would be sprouting nonesense, like 'haha, fork' and other such things, all the while laughing. The man would end up being unable to stay in the same room as anyone that was remotely close to laughing. He'd notice the signs, he'd be able to tell the beginnings from a mile away, and he would be forced to resign from his position on the force and become a Tokubetsu Jounin, one specializing in paperwork. That last bit was a bit of mental programming that Byakko had implanted into the man's mind.

With his task of performing his cruel and unusual punishments on his own forces, Byakko Ryoku teleported to the gates of Kiri where his team waited for him, Ryoku being himself knew that his other self was own its way, and that it would be better if they waited for his other self, or his third self in this case.

As they entered they were met by Raiga, who handed out the forms, interviewed them a little, and summoned a hunter-nin to lead them to a hotel where they would stay, while their applications would be processed. Apparently they were a day early, all that running and teleporting had made them travel through time by accident, it must have been caused by Ryoku's desire not to be late, and arrive just before the exam officially started but with enough time to go through protocol. Apparently such a time was a day before it all began.


	33. Chapter 33

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-three**_

"Better late then never," Ryoku said as he, his other self, and Zabuza entered the building which would serve as the testing grounds for the first portion of the exam.

The Chunin had decided to use the civilian school as opposed to the Ninja Academy as there was less strategic value in the place as compared to their military academy. For all they know there might have been a jounin level shinobi among the ranks of genin that could find some secret if they decided to hold the test in the military academy. Smart choice, and Ryoku approved.

"I can't believe we had to pass by the Tower just so you could tweak your map into not being able to spot us," Zabuza said, "Its not like Mog would be looking for us."

"He wouldn't be looking for us, but would be monitoring the participants," Ryoku said, "We're lucky that we haven't been found out yet."

"We're not lucky," Zabuza said, "I'm lucky I'm with you."

"Yes, there is that," Ryoku said.

"Lower your voices you two," Shinobu, keeping up with the disguise, whispered, "Someone could be listening in on our conversations."

"Sorry," the other two apologized.

They walked in silence to their designated classroom, once inside they found themselves in the presence of a mixture of teams from all over the shinobi world, some headbands they too didn't even recognize, until Ryoku tapped into his vast memory and found all the information pertaining to those previously unknown headbands.

He found two teams that intrigued him, one had a Nami clansman, while the other was made up of Kaze clansman. What got him intrigued was that the Nami and Kaze clansmen were getting along quite nicely, as if they considered themselves cousins of some sort. So he took a trip down memory lane once again, and found out that at some point in the past the two clans had had a political marriage, but the married couple had refused to stay in either Mizu no Kuni or Kaze no Kuni, and had migrated and stayed in Hi no Kuni. He now had confirmation as to where the line of Namikaze Minato came from.

The future Yondaime Hokage had the will of not only fire, but also of the winds and the waves as well.

A small branch of that family had also settled into what was known as Nami no Kuni, a small island country which was ruled by a civilian branch of the Nami clan, and was taken over a few years after arriving there by the Namikaze clan.

Ryoku positioned himself along one of the walls of the room, while Zabuza scoped out the competition, since they were pretending to be genin might as well act as if one was truly running for the rank of Chunin. He had Zabuza do that, while Shinobu did his thing and vanished into the shadows.

Konoha being the most powerful of all the Great Hidden Villages had teams that decided to try some intimidation tactics on the rest of the competitors. One of their teams being in the same group as Ryoku. The self appointed team leaders were boating about how they would beat everyone else and would become chunin with their mad skills. It was a good thing that no one was listening, up until one of the leaf-nin insulted Ryoku who was leaning against the wall...

"You're all losers!" the Konoha-nin said, "Especially that one eyed no name by the wall!"

'_Do nothing...Shinobu will take care of it.._' Ryoku ordered Zabuza who was ready to pounce, and so relaxed as Shinobu moved through everyone's shadows ending up behind the big mouthed genin.

"I wouldn't insult my comrades if I were you," Shinobu said from behind the Konoha-nin, a ninjato blade to the younger ninja's throat ready to spill some blood before the exam itself started.

All the other occupants in the room were shocked by Shinobu's sudden appearance. No one, other than Ryoku knew where he himself, had come from. All they knew was that one moment the Konoha-nin was mouthing off, and in the next moment this ninja in black was standing threateningly behind the bigmouth.

"Had our villages currently been at war with one another.." he pressed his blade harder against the younger man's neck enough to draw some blood, "You would have been dead now. I could have removed you from this world in twenty-seven different ways."

"W-Well we're not at war..s-so c-could you remove the blade from my friend's neck now?" the genin's comrade pleaded a little bit pathetically.

"Tch, if you are the best Konoha could send, I hope to one day see its worst," Shinobu said and sheathed his blade, then disappearing into the shadows once again.

A moment later the room returned to its previous volume in conversations, while they waited for the proctor..

Hoshigaki Kisame was a happy man, with Samhada stuck to his back he blew a hole open through the door from the hallway and entered followed by his contingent of Chunin. The chunins positioned themselves along the walls, one even pushing Ryoku away from his comfortable position.

"Alright brats! Listen up!" Kisame shouted as he slammed Samehada against the floor getting all the Genins' attention, "The first part of the Exams is about to begin, so take your seats, but make sure that your teammates are nowhere near you."

The chunin hopefuls scrambled to find a place to sit. Team Ryoku or Team Mizukage sat in seats that, if a compass were used in the room, would be where the needle would point to the directions their names represented. Ryoku knew how this first part of the first portion of the exam was going to go. It was an information gathering test, and his team was more than ready to perform, and pass with flying colors. What he was excited about was finding out what the end of this part was to be like.

"This is a paper test, therefore if one of you is caught cheating, then your whole team is kicked out of the exam," Kisame announced once they were all seated, "Also, we will be checking your answers, a seventy-five and you pass, but all your team needs is one passing paper to move on to the next round of the exams. So pass out the papers Chunin, and good luck!"

Once the papers were passed around the room, and the test officially began, Ryoku simply cast a spell which made all of the correct answers appear on the test questionaires in ink, looking as if they had been typewritten on the papers.

'_Flip through some nonsense handseals, no chakra, and act like a Yamanaka and take a nap,_' Ryoku instructed Zabuza, as he as he instructed. The Chunin paid them no mind.

By the time that Kisame believed that the numbers of participants of his batch had dwindled enough, he called for the end of the written portion of the first part of the exam and had the Chunin gather the papers and check the answers.

"While the Chunin check your papers, I want each of the teams to volunteer one member to come with me for the second hald of this part of the exam," Kisame said and stood by the hole in the wall that he had created, and waited for the volunteers to approach him.

"Seiryuu..you go," Ryoku said, and Zabuza complied.

"Hai, Genbu-sama!" Zabuza said, complete with salute and walked over to his senpai who didn't know that it was him since even his chakra signature had been altered to mask his indentity.

"Alright, follow me!" Kisame said as he led genin to wherever they were going to stay for this second half of the exams, whether or not their teams pass the exams.

When the final results had been handed out, and the failures were kicked out, the remaining team members were led to different rooms, and made to form lines and wait their turn to enter the room that they were designated. Ryoku was still excited at the prospect of finding out how this part would be, and if it was any good as it didn't have his input.

When it came to his turn to enter the room, he found himself alone with a bound and unidentifiable man, a quick scan of the mind and Ryoku concluded that it was a clone. Shinobu simply stayed back and looked to be waiting for orders.

"You have two choice, kill your teammate or walk away from the mission presented to you," a Jounin's voice could be heard coming from everywhere, "There will be times when you will need to make a decision, kill your teammate or fail the mission. Now choose."

Kiri was supposed to be showing its survival of the fittest image, its bloodthirsty-ness, its love for bloodshed and violence. This was perfect. Ryoku, knowing that it was a mere blood clone, simply charged the clone and smashed his fists into the clone's rib cage. Shinobu appeared behind the bound bushin and plunged a hand through the top of the skull, and ripped out the spine through that opening.

"I've always wanted to do that," Ryoku said, loud enough for the jounin to hear, but not loud enough to be considered shouting.

When the two of them were done mutilating the body of the clone to the extent that the jounin monitoring the room didn't know whether or not the clone technique had ended or not due to the puddle of blood and mush that remained on the floor, covered the walls, and the like. For this portion of the exam, the jounin placed the other team member behind a one way mirror so that they could see what their teammate's would chose. It was meant to shake up the teammate so that their teamwork in the next part of the exam would not be at its best.

Zabuza didn't mind seeing what he saw, as he believed in his Kage's ability to tell that it had been a clone and was the reason why he made such a mess of the room, that even if he wouldn't verbally admit it, he was freaked out and grossed out of his life. He had actually thrown up in a bucket three times before he was revealed.

"So..you're still alive," Shinobu said, "Funny, do we get to kill you for real?"

"Erm..no..you don't have to.." one jounin appeared and said, "Congratulations on passing the first part of the Chunin Exams, for the next part please proceed to Traning Ground sixty-nine tomorrow at nine in the morning. Dismissed."

Ryoku took his sweet time leading his team out of the building. Sweet time as in, stopping to glare at every single genin on his way out, and trying to intimidate them without revealing who he really was. Zabuza didn't mind as he got to glare as well. Their dilly dallying caused a trio of jounin to actually throw them out of the school as they were disturbing the proceedings and distracting some of the participants and staff.

A lot of teams had managed to make it past the first part of the exam, many of them had been able to participate in the previous war and had a hardened heart to an extent. Some teams were relieved to find that they had not killed their teammate, but that they had killed those that failed to pass the genin graduation exams of the village, or so they were told by the jounin in charge of their room after they were done. There were teams that were so shook up that they wanted to quit, but their senseis forbade them from taking the coward's way out.

Having passed the first part of the exams, as well as not being recognized, Byakko didn't have a hard time congratulating his team on a job well done, since he was proud of himself. He was a very confident individual, as well as had an ego to match any Hyuuga, him being their 'summon' and all.

The rest of the day was spent leading the hunter-nin teams that were assigned the mission of trailing them around the village. Ryoku and Zabuza emplyed every single underhanded trick they could come up with to give their secret escort an incredibly hard time. But at no point in time did the psuedo Anbu give up, they just kept doing their job no matter how frustrating and how painful, one of them had landd somehow into the women's side of one of the hot springs in the village.

At one point in time, Tamago himself had to step in and join the hunt for these disruptors of normalcy, and boy did he have a hard time chasing down his prey. Ryoku and company were slipperier than eels, and Mog had misplaced the key to reinputing the names of their prey, and therefore Ryoku and company were untrackable via the map.

By midnight of that day's night, Ryoku and company decided to give the hunters a break, and retired to their designated rooms in their designated hotel and wait for the next day, the day of the second portion of the exams.

When the next day's sun rose up above the horizon Ryoku and company were already up and ready for the day's events, or however long this second portion of the exam would be taking. Byakko himself had already gone on ahead to where the other jounin-senseis were gathering for some rest and relaxation away from the tiring and taxing job of teaching a bunch of brats, as some lovingly referred to their cute wittle students.

When Ryoku and Zabuza arrived at Training Ground 69, Zabuza reacted a little too loudly to what he saw as he had never actually had the privilege of going to the said training ground, it was usually off limits due to it being a clan training ground. It was on par with the infamous bucket, that it was referred to as _That_, by all those that knew of its existence..

"Its HUGE!" Zabuza shouted in surprise as he saw something stick its head out of the water of the lake that made up front of the training ground.

There was a wall and several gates to enter the training ground, the wall was roughly as high as the perimeter wall of the village as it was there to keep out the bigger and more dangerous creatures housed within the training ground. The creature that Zabuza had seen was a giant squid, this one just as big as its summon clan counterparts, but not as intelligent.

"I can see that," Ryoku said, "But do you need to be so loud?"

"I don't..." Zabuza said sheepishly, then asked as they situated themselves a few meters away from the wall and sat on the ground waiting for the other teams and for this thing to begin, "So what's the plan?"

"We go in, and do whatever we need to do, in the fastest time possible that we may be given the chance to spy on the exam," Ryoku said, "When this portion of the exam is over, we will quit before the finals, and reveal ourselves to our comrades."

"That sounds a little boring," Zabuza said.

"Fine...we'll do something else," Ryoku said, "But let me think about it first, I'll need to come up with a daring plan to test our village's security."

"If you say so boss," Zabuza said as he lay down on the ground and fell asleep.

"Such a simple minded fool," Shinobu said.

"Hush...you may be a part of me, but it seems parts of my personality needs some attitude adjustments," Ryoku said, and he began to tap into his seal array, the one that connected him to his map. The seal array covered the whole village, in case he needed access to the map from anywhere in the place, it was a tidbit of information that none of his commanders knew about, and he would be keeping it that way.

When it was finally time for this second part to begin, Ryoku literally kicked Zabuza awake..

"What was that for?" Zabuza demanded as he stood up, then remembered who he was speaking to, and tried to apologize, but before he could Ryoku put up a hand to silence him.

"Don't worry about it," Ryoku said, "If I were mad you'd be in a body bag."

"Arigato, Genbu-sama,"Zabuza said bowing.

"Enough with that," Ryoku said, "Listen to the instructions, I don't want anything to be missed."

The main proctor for this part of the exam was none other than Kurosaki Raiga, that Seven member that all the genin had met at the gates of the village when they arrived. Based on experience, they didn't know just how powerful and how high ranking he was, since in their own villages gate guard duty was usually left to Chunin as everything one about had more important things to do.

"Your goal is to retrieve two scrolls, one heaven, and one earth, and bring both of them to other end of the training ground," Raiga announced, "Kill or be killed, kiddies! We've dumped nuke-nins and criminals in the training grounds, they have the scrolls you need. Have fun getting them!"

A chunin approached Raigo carrying a scroll, the genin assumed it was orders or something like that.

"Don't forget the complete team rule," the chunin said and handed over the scroll, "These are the forms."

"Alright," Raiga said, then addressed the crowd, "I need a member from each team to form a line," he then unsealed all the forms from the scroll, "You all need to sign these forms in order to continue, its so that if any of you die, Kiri will not be held responsible. And before I forget, all three members have to be present when you hand in the scrolls at the structure at the other end of the training ground."

"Seiryuu," Ryoku said.

"I'll get them," he said and walked off to join the line.

As Zabuza walked away to get the forms for their team, Ryoku pondered on the new information he had learned. There were supposedly teams of nuke-nin and criminals running lose in the forest, they were the ones to get the scrolls from. But Ryoku doubted that that was truly the case, as he knew his people, they would't do that. They were either clones or they were Kiri-nin pretending to be nuke-nin and regular criminals. The kill or be killed part might have something to do with kawarimi and blood clones. It was possible, it was feasible, and Ryoku decided to invade Raiga's mind and pluck the information from out of his head.

He found that his assumptions were correct, but he also found out that there was a small breach in village security as there were intruders in the training ground. The memory of it was fleeting, but he saw out of the corner of one of Raiga's memories a few Konoha-nin jump over the wall and into the training ground while the Kiri-nin were setting up the day before.

He quickly stored away what the Konoha-nin looked like..

'_There are intruders in my village...they will answer my questions or they will die.._' were Ryoku's morbid thoughts after the revelation.

As soon as Zabuza returned with the forms Ryoku briefed him on the new developments to their situation. He took it well enough, meaning he freaked out, the chunin and jounin thought that he was freaking out after finally realizing the possibility of dying.

"Before we let you in, I need to inform you as to the deadline for you to get to the otherside," Raiga said, "You have five days to complete this test! Jounin take them to their gates after they have submitted the forms! Genin you have three minutes!"

After the three minutes were up, Ryoku and company found themselves ready to enter the training ground and begin their hunt of hunts. Ryoku was seething inside, he had a feeling in his gut telling him that those Konoha-nin were not normal, not by a long shot, and he knew that their being in the training ground spelled trouble. There were six of them all in all, and Ryoku was determined to not only be among those to be considered for the final part of the exam, but also ensure HIS village's safety from these unwanted forces.

Once the test had officially begun, a bell had rung, the gates were opened, and the genin had rushed in. Once inside, Ryoku ordered Zabuza to go fetch the two needed scrolls, then find him. He told his subordinate that he would be going after the six intruders, and would ensure that Konohagakure no Sato knew not to underestimate his village, as well as teach them to respect the privacy of His village.

The lake was the first obstacle presented to the genin, as it was at the forefront of the training ground, beyond it was all other manner of terrain. The clan that sort of owned the training ground was a clan whose Kekkai Genkai enabled them to have affinities for all the elements, which made fighting in any terrain their speciality, or not give them a speciality at all.

Ryoku and company dashed across the water's surface and into the trees of the forest that waited on the opposite shore. From there they split up, Ryoku calling forth Ryuumusha and Keigo in kiddie form to help him in locating and decimating the enemy.

His four forms zipped through the foliage, until one of them spotted one of the intruders, Ryuumusha was the first to stop and evaluate his foe, as well as come up with a plan of dealing with them. Keigo found his in a rocky terrain, and did as his draconic-samurai-ish self. Shinobu spotted a group of three and phased even further into the shadows to study his prey. Leaving Ryoku with the remaining one, who he had tracked back to the lake.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't some unknown genin, whatever am I to do," the Konoha-nin mocked, "IF you would just stand still, I'll end your life quickly and painlessly. No hard feelings kid, orders are orders."

"And what pray tell are these orders?" Ryoku asked, his face blank of all emotion.

"To cull the heard, to give my fellow nin more chances of advancing and showing the world the greatness of the great tree that is Konoha," the Konoha-nin said.

"How you got in here, I don't know, but after I'm through with you and your friends, I'll make sure that no one will be able to use the same method again," Ryoku said, he then got into a fighting stance, "So..we gonna fight or what?"

The Konoha-nin wasted no more time talking and simply attacked Ryoku, thinking that he was just some upstart bigmouthed genin or something. He disappeared and reappeared behind Ryoku and slammed down a kunai, intending to instantly kill Ryoku with a kunai through the skull. He missed as the one that he did hit was just an after image.

"Oph..." was the only reaction that managed to escape the intruder's lips as he was kicked right in betweeen his legs, a low blow, but there were very little things that shinobi wouldn't use in a fight. Everything was fair when two shinobi fought. Everything.

Ryoku didn't stop attacking there, even though the kick was strong enough to turn the grown man into an eunuch, he continued by kicking the man in the ribs on both sides at the same time, utilizing his time manipulation powers.

Since the man was unable to move, he followed it up by phasing an arm through the man's body, and grabbed the man's spine, and ripped a portion of it out. An action which made sure that the man would be unable to move the lower half of his body.

"I have just ended your career," Ryoku whispered into the man's ear, then proceeded with the now torture.

He then wrapped the lower half of the man's body with some kind of cloth, then covered the man's legs with maggots, ones that ate the man's lower body at an exponentially quicker pace as compared to what such critters were normally able to do.

"Who exactly sent you," Ryoku demanded an answer, as two of his time traveling selves held the man above the waters, "Give me a name, and you better be honest, I'll know if you lie."

He would normally just invade the man's mind, but there was just a bit of rage mixed in with his thoughts which made him temporarily forget about that ability. No one messed with his village.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" the man screamed in absolute pain, and the exponential rate of consumption also meant an exponential increase in the pain that an alive victim would feel. So Ryoku dulled the pain for a moment.

"Tell me the name," Ryoku hissed in the man's ear, his magic visible around one hand, the hand that would release the pain.

Instead of replying to Ryoku, the man spat in his face, and so the pain began anew, and this was followed by his arms being covered in cloth, and was given the leech treatment, his internal fluids were being sucked out at an exponential rate. Not only was his blood being drained, but so was every other liquid present in the body. The pain just increased exponentially again. The only reason the man hadn't yet died due to the overload of pain was due to Ryoku not wanting him to have an easy way out.

"AAAAHHHH!"

Ryoku once again dulled the pain that the shinobi felt, than asked the question again, only to be rewarded with another globule of spit on his face. So he rewarded the man with pain all throughout his body, even going so far as to heal the man completely, and repeating the painful process all over again, but this time adding mice and rats inside the man, to eat him from the inside out..

"I will dull the pain now, and if you do not talk, I will reengage the pain, and have it continue until you finally succumb to death," Ryoku told the man.

"D-Danzo.." the man was able to hoarsely whisper, and as he relaxed he was suddenly rewarded with pain, oh glorious pain, as well as a teleportation seal plastered on the cloth that covered him from the neck down, along with a note..that basically said 'Mess with Kiri and Die'.

"W-W-why..?" the man was barely able to ask before seal was activated.

"I never did say what I would do if you talked," Ryoku said grinning an evil grin, then activated the seal which sent the man to where his boss was, which was in the Hokage's office in Konoha, where the warhawk was with his Kage.

With his personal opponent out of the way, dissolved into nothingness, as he joined with Keigo, his spear wielding other self.

Ryuumusha was having a fun time literally running circles around his foe, dizzying the man, til his head too began to spin as if possessed by some supernatural force, which in a way it was due to his close proximity with the Avatar of Time. Ryuumush did not need to interogate the man, but simply toy with him, and eventually torture him as the man was still one of the six that decided that it would be a good idea to sabotage the exams a bit.

He had not yet unleashed his blade, in Ryuumusha form he did not rely on his special blades, but on a seemingly standard katana, one of many he could create on the fly. When he did finally unleash his blade, the attack that struck the panicked Konoha-nin was truly frightening as the man was made to believe that a Senju had betrayed him.

From the blade flew a wind current that cut a circle around the man, and from the minitature trenches that were formed the makings of a tree speedily sprung out and covered the man, making him look like some funky mummy covered in wood, but leaving his head still human, and alive. He tried to yell and call out for help or yell and scream in pain as his body was integrated into the wooden structure. But Ryuumusha simply appeared in front of him and shoved an apple in his mouth, a golden apple. One that would explode if bit through.

"Bite down I dare you," Ryuumusha whispered into the man's exposed ear, "Bite down and die."

He then placed a kind of plasitc covering over the man's face, but still keeping him alive, like his other victim. These men would only die when he deemed that they had suffered enough.

After slapping on a teleportation seal and note on the man's wooden chest, Ryoku added some wood lice to the wood, then activated the seal, transporting a second man in the office of a shocked village leader.

After getting bored analyzing what was obviously inferior to him in all aspects, Keigo simply walked out from behind a tree and skewered the shinobi with his spear, sending it straight through the man's mouth and out his anus. All the while keeping the man tethered to the world of life. It would not do for his victims to simply die on him, now would it.

The image which Ryoku cultivated as Keigo was one which made him seem to be unable to use chakra in the same was as samurai or shinobi. He was just a regular guy, a regular body guard with more than special weapons at his disposal. That was what he made everyone that didn't know his secret thnk.

But the truth of the matter was that Keigo, like the other forms, were just masks, they were just characters, they were Ryoku playing pretend in a more life like and real way. They were false images presented to the world that he might enjoy some semblance of normalcy while at the same time keeping his eccentricity.

The spear tip was jammed all the way into the trunk of a tree, with the Konoha-nin hanging onto it. Keigo then pulled out a roll of barbed wire and slowly and meticulously wrapped it around the nin, and made sure that the barbs all caused wounds to form on the man's skin. With that part of the torture done, Keigo proceeded to pour a bottle's worth of tabasco sauce on each wound, making the pain a whole lot worse. He also made sure to rub some salt in those wounds as well.

After inflicting such pain on his foe's person. He took out a razor and carved the teleportation seal on the man's genitals, cauterizing the wounds with magical flames, the kinds that kitsune are supposed to be able to produce.

Stepping back to admire his work, he noticed that his foe still had some dignity, something which Keigo decided the man didn't need, so he sucked in enough air to make him bloat, and when he was full, let it all out in the form of a Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu. In effect burning the poor man's clothes, leaving him bare naked, with only the barbed wire covering some parts of his body, not much, but he was still covered in something.

As Keigo admired his work, he noticed that the man didn't seem to be in enough pain, he didn't look like he would make a good deterant against any more invasion attempts, minor as this one had been, again. There was something missing. His main form had infested a man with maggots, leeches, and rodents, and Ryuumusha had shattered the belief that the Senju were the only Mokuton users in the land.

The only part of the man that looked to still be intact was the man's face. The other men also had intact faces. So Keigo decided that this one's face didn't need to be preserved all that much, and seeing as the man was a Hyuuga, not that he had anything against the Hyuuga, he would remove one of the man's eyes, leaving him half blind. He plucked the eye out as if it were just some orb, like it was a glass eye of some sort. With it in the palm of his hand he turned it into a glass eye, and enlarged it a little. With a little bit of magic here and a little bit of magic there, he turned it into an all seeing eye, a device which could see past great distances, and see through objects, people, and most importantly walls.

If Albus Dumbledore could have a way of knowing who was outside his office's door without the person knocking, Ryoku decided that he, as Mizukage, deserved something like that too. He even took some of the veins, the ones connected to the eye along with it, and transformed them into tubes that would feed off of the ambient chakra and magic in wherever he placed the orb.

In order for the man to keep having a complete face, Keigo placed an acorn in the empty socket, and he poured some magic into the acorn to make it grow a little, he infused the acorn with enough magic to make it take root in the man's skull. Also the acorn, the core of the plant that had grown across half the man's face was a bomb, one which would go off and destroy the man's body should someone decide to try and remove it from the socket.

With his form of torture done, Keigo taped the note on the man's face, and activated the seal, sending the poor unfortunate soul back to Konoha, where the Hokage and his trusty advisors were once again shocked into finding another citizen that had no record of existing in the office.

With their targets disabled and sent away back to their master, all forms, save for Byakko, fused with Shinobu. His three unsuspecting victims had ambushed several teams already, but these one's were able to get away from them thanks to Shinobu helping them out.

When they were about to leave the area, slightly frustrated, Shinobu struck, he dragged his first victim into the shadows of the foliage, and proceeded to tear his limb from limb, throwing out of the bushes the pieces of him that he didn't seem to need at the moment. When he threw out his first victim, his comrades didn't know how to react, as their comrade had been turned into a ball, with his head sticking out of the mess, and looked to still be alive since he blinked every now and then.

Shinobu's next victim was too busy staring in fear at his comrade that had been turned into a ball, that he was unable to notice Shinobu as he appeared from out of the shadow of a tree and turn him into puree, right before his partner turned to face him and consult him.

The third and last member of the group of six was left staring at the spot where his teammate's head was sitting on the floor, with his arms and legs attached to the head, the torso being the only part that had really been turned to puree. He didn't know what to do, and didn't think that it was possible for their to be monster in this exam. He didn't even think of the possibility that there was an above jounin level shinobi in the exam disguised as a genin, and was the one responsible for the radio silence he and his team had been suffering.

The man looked around in paranoia, seeking out this unseen foe, and preparing himself for the worst, which was to suffer the same fates as his comrades. He wasn't expecting Shinobu to simply walked out of his shadow, and morph into Ryoku's main adult form, complete with Kage robes and hat.

"Choose your words wisely, Konoha-nin," Ryoku said with a hint of killing intent in his voice, "For they are likely to be the last words you will ever utter."

"Who.." the man began to ask, but had his tongue pulled out by Ryoku as soon as he opened his mouth. Ryoku also vanished all the organs that he believed the man didn't need to survive past a week, like his stomach, his liver, kidneys, spleen, and the like. He took everything from the inside save for the circulatory system and the respiratory system.

He would be keeping the man alive with his magic, and when he was done grafting the teleportation seal on the heart, he decided to at least inform his captive of his name.

"Before I send you home, I will tell you the name of the man is the cause of your death one week from now," Ryoku whispered suddenly into the man's ear, "I am Ryoku, Yondaime Mizukage no Kirigakure no Sato, and the Taijutsu no Tatsujin. Too bad you wont be able to tell anyone that. Good bye."

With his parting words, he activated the seal, and the man landed in the office of the Hokage, with his other two companions, whose tongue were also torn right out.

With that task complete, Ryoku teleported over to where Zabuza had dozed off, made Shinobu appear, and carried his teammate all the way to the place they needed to be in, in record time, and were the first ones to get there, he didn't forget to return to chibi-mode.

Once they reached their destination, he threw the two scrolls at the nearest chunin, and the chunin somehow summoned Byakko from wherever he had been waiting. They were informed of their record, and were also informed as to where they would be staying for the remainder of the days of the test, and were also told that they were free to wander the place, but were forbidden from leaving.

When the deadline arrived there was a total of twenty-seven chunin candidates left, including Ryoku and company. They were all summoned to an arena within the place, and were told that as a last minute change, they would have to go through a preliminary tournament before they would be allowed to enter the final part of the exam. Only the winners would be permitted to enter the public tournament, and only the winners would be given a real chance to become a chunin.

"Orignally," Mogatari said infront of the hopefuls, "We would have had the Mizukage here speaking to all of you, and explaining the reason why we have this intrer-village exam...but...since he's out on a mission, I was voted in to take his place.."

"So Mizukage-sama really isn't here..?" one Kiri genin asked, there were two teams from the host country that had made it to this part of the exam.

"Yes..he is out making sure that our allies remain our allies," Mogatari said, "Before we begin this tournament, are there any among you that want to back out?"

Shinobu raised his hand..

"Alright, you in black, you may wait for your teammates," Mogatari said.

Ryoku decided against joining the tourney and raised his hand too, Zabuza followed suit as he really didn't see a point in fighting brats, even though he looked like one himself.

"Alright..so that's one whole team..." Mogatari said, and Tamago who was nearby, took note of the odd thing, since the team that had quit was the very same team that had set the record for finishing the second part of the exam.

"Any particular reason why you quit?" Tamago asked the three quitters.

"There would be no point in remaining in the tournament," Zabuza said, "They're all a bunch of weaklings, and it just wouldn't be fair."

"How can you say such a thing even if you haven't really battled against them," Tamago said, then turned to Mog, "I don't think that's a valid reason for quitting.."

"Hey Jounin!" Mogatari shouted at Byakko, grabbing his attention, "Is there something Kiri should know about?"

Ryoku decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to join the tournament, just for a little fun, this way they could take out some pesky wannabes.

"They're just lazy, especially Genbu, they'll compete," Byakko said.

"Alright..so that's twenty-seven participants, and fourteen matches, one of you will have a free pass to the finals," Mogatari said.

"Ok, Mogatari-san, if you'll let me do my job," Tora said from out of the blue, also appearing from seemingly out of nowhere, "I'm the proctor for this part of the exams. The combatants will be chosen randomly by my assistant, Meizu if you will make yourself known."

Meizu appeared on the stand above the arena, with a box with all the names of the genin written on sheets of paper.

"First up will be Hyuuga Minoru versus Seiryuu!" Meizu shouted before a lot of things were said, he was a little bit impatient.

"Fine! Don't let me finish my speech!" Tora shouted and threw several kunai at his friend, then turned back to the genin, "The two that were called, stay here, the rest of you to the upper level. Move!"

"I'm moving, I'm moving," Ryoku muttered under his breath hoping that Tora would hear him, "I'll stick you in a bucket when I'm done with this thing.."

Tora visibly stiffened when he heard his boss' voice, even if it sounded like a whisper, he instanty knew that something was up, and whatever it was, was bad for the genin and himself.

The combatants stood facing one another, evaluating the other, Zabuza instantly knew the capabilities of his opponent, but knew that he wouldn't be able to use his regular abilities in this battle lest his Kage kick his ass and label him as a nuke-nin, or worse stick him in the bucket.

"Alright," Tora said, "The rules are simple, leave the audience out of the fight, you may kill your opponent, and hmm...MY decision is final, if I say stop, combatants stop, and if I declare a winner, then whoever I declared as winner, wins. If you don't like it, you can take it up with Mogatari-san."

"Why me?" Mogatari shouted from the upper level.

"Kisame would have been overkill," Tora said.

"I agree," Tamago said, who was still taking notes of the minutes even though they weren't technically in a meeting.

"Alright," Tora said, raised his hand, and shouted, "Begin!"

The Hyuuga got into the Jyuuken stance, while Zabuza simply held his mini-zanbatou in one hand and pointed it at his opponent. It was a tense start, and silence reigned in the arena for a few seconds until a pin dropped and the two fighters rushed at each other.

The two met in the middle of the arena, each of the Hyuuga's attacks missed their mark completely, while Zabuza's attacks with his sword did as well. The two combatants jumped back to reassess their opponent.

But before the Hyuuga got a chance to do anything, Zabuza pulled out a water gun with one hand, while the other flashed through half seals..

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" Zabuza called out his attack just as he pulled the trigger of the water gun releasing water which turned into a raging dragon made out of water. How such a small amount of water had managed to turn into a raging water dragon, no one but Ryoku and Zabuza knew. But there it was, it headed for the Hyuuga who was forced to pull out his trump card.

The Hyuuga blocked the dragon using the Kaiten, a dome of chakra that surrounded a spinning Hyuuga in their times of need, and with the Byakugan activated, the Hyuuga would not get dizzy from all the spinning as they were used to seeing all around as it were.

With the Hyuuga slightly winded from the attack, Zabuza pressed on, he pushed out all the remaining water from the water gun and formed even more water dragons, all of which he had circling around him for a few miliseconds before sending five out of fifty at the genin, slamming him against the far wall, and anti-climatically knocking the brat out.

"Winner Seiryuu!" Tora shouted.

"Next up are Genbu and Kiyone Himawari!" Meizu shouted.

Both combatants jumped down from where they were standing and waiting their turn. Genbu immediately stood casually at one end of the arena, relaxing his entire form, looking like he didn't really care about anything, while his opponent got into a fighting stance that made him look like he was imitating a tiger.

Himawari was a Kusa-nin, and the only male of his team. He possessed a Kekkai Genkai, one which allowed him to grow sunflowers, and use them in a fight. Sunflowers and only sunflowers. Every part of the flower he could use as a weapon, from the stem to the petals, to even the pollen.

"Begin!" Tora shouted, and following his gut, he jumped up to the upper level to join his fellow commanders.

"What are you doing here?" Mogatari asked the Chunin commander.

"My gut was telling me to get out of there," Tora said.

Down in the arena, Himawari was busy attacking Ryoku with taijutsu with a style that he didn't look to have mastered yet. While Ryoku simply weaved his way in and out of the attacks just like the master that he was.

"Why do you keep dodging my strikes! Are you that weak!" Himawari taunted his foe, hoping that his foe would get mad and slip up.

"I am not weak," Ryoku stated, "But I don't think I should show you my real strength."

"I bet you really suck," Himawari taunted, "You coward, I bet you just rely on that teammate of yours to do all the fighting."

"Such immature taunts do not phase me," Ryoku stated, and continued dodging, and evading blows.

He continued to do so even when the boy began using his bloodline limit. Sunflower petals were flying all over the place like shuriken, while the leaves were being used as kunai.

Sometime during the rather high speed match Mei and Shiki arrived as they were directed there by the jounin that was in charge of receiving returning shinobi. Her arrival was really bad, as several of the petals were heading her way, a spot that had previously been empty, and thus would not count against the genin. But Ryoku did not care about that. Professionally he knew that the brat was no in the wrong. But personally, well...

Fortunately Shinobu and Byakko were fast enough to pull the new arrivals to the ground before the petals struck with deadly force, a fact which was made even more evident by the craters on the wall. The petals had exploded on impact.

"Thanks," Mei whispered to her savior which was in the form of Byakko, while Shiki thanked the black-clad 'genin'.

When the spectators returned their gazes to the arena, they were met with a mighty gruesome sight. That being the Kusa-nin had suddenly found himself neck deep in the ground, and all of his projectiles being held by by what looked to be chakra, Ryoku preferred magic even though he could now freely use chakra for some blasted reason.

"We are not supposed to endanger the audience," Ryoku said, then asked, "Do you yield?" after releasing one of the leaves which impacted a mere inch away from the young man's right ear.

Instead of yielding, Himawari belched out a poison gas cloud right in Ryoku's face. A surprising tactic which allowed the genin to escape his earthen bonds and regained control over his tools. While Ryoku staggered back for a few seconds, regaining control of himself. It was a surprise attack, and boy was he surprised. He didn't think that the genin had it in him. Sure there was no way that the genin could kill him, but still..he was a Kage for crying out loud. The teacher of the Sage of the Six Path, and he had been out foxed by a mere genin. It was quite humbling, but at the same time, really got him irritated.

Himawari returned to the offensive, dishing out sunflower related jutsu left right and center. While Ryoku, instead of dodging remained in place, while he made the magnetic fields around him move all the attacks away from him. Making it look like his opponent's aim sucked.

"What in the world is he doing just standing there?" one genin asked her sensei.

"I haven't a clue," the sensei replied.

Mei was intently watching the match, and realized something. The genin with an extremely relaxed stance sort of looked familiar. Like a kid version of someone she should know. It was only when he took out a plastic cup from within the folds of his clothes that she realized who the heck was fighting a genin.

She immediately rushed to Mogatari's side..Shiki following her in concern.

"Call the match," Mei said, a little authoratively.

"Why?" Mogatari asked, "I don't see anything wrong so far."

"The one standing around is more dangerous than he appears," Mei said, not wanting to mention who Genbu really was with so many ears listening in on the conversation.

"So? I know for a fact that there are genin out there that could wipe the floor with a seasoned jounin," Mogatari said, "What makes this one different?"

"I can't tell you," Mei said, "They are just too many ears in here."

"Give me a clue then," Mogatari said, "I can't exactly leave the room now, especially with Mizukage-sama not being here to oversee the thing."

"Actually you can," Mei said, she remembered that her fiance had more than one form.

"And why is that?" Mogatari asked, "I think I know my job, more than you do."

"That black-clad kid," Mei said, motioning toward Shinobu, "That's Shinobu."

"Y-You can't be serious," Mogatari said, stuttering a little at the revelation, "Why the hell is he in the exam?"

"Either to make sure everything goes smoothly, checking on how well the village operates without him, or just having some fun, you know how he is," Mei whispered as she noticed some of the foreign jounin tried to listen in on their conversation, and not so discreetly, "You've got to call the match."

"Shit," Mogatari cursed, '_So that's why they were quitting!_'

"Well? Whatcha want me to do?" Tora asked.

"Call a draw and disquialify Shinobu," Mogatari said.

"What reason?" Tora asked, knowing that without a valid reason he couldn't just do something like that even though Kage's shouldn't be playing around with genin.

"Think of something!" Mogatari said, a little too loudly.

Ryoku heard the shout, and decided to end his match as quickly as possible, before Mei managed to ruin what he now deemed as fun. He instantly moved from where he stood to right in front of the genin, slamming his chakra and magic powered fist into the genin's gut, forcing not only the air out of the kid, but also everything he had eaten for the week along with some blood. All of it flying out of the kid's mouth and sliding over the shoulder of the kage level shinobi.

Before he could deliver another blow, one that would surely cripple the genin, Himawari's jounin sensei grabbed the back of his student, and brought placed his body in between the Kage and the genin, ultimately causing his student to lose a match that he already more or less had lost.

"Interfere with my match will you," Byakko whispered for only his other self, Shinobu, to hear.

Shinobu Ryoku acted, a part of him knowing that his subordinates would eventually find a way to end his fun, and force him back into his robes, and back to work. So he decided that if he was going to be taken out of the tournament, he might as well do it his way.

So Shinobu appeared in the arena and kicked the jounin out from between Ryoku and Himawari. Which would get his black-clad self kicked out. That was one self of his out of the picture, now for his main self.

Ryoku, free from the jounin sensei, instantly appeared above the still downed, but conscious genin, and nearly ended the genin's career permanently, but was stopped from continuing by none other than his own 'jounin-sensei' Byakko.

Byakko moved faster than the wind and grabbed Ryoku's leg and flung him away from the downed genin.

"Stand down," Byakko said, "The fight's over, that kusa-nin lost already."

"Tch, with a temper like that, I'll bet you'll kill your girlfriend if she ever pisses you off," the genin on the grround weakly taunted, knowing that even though he was beaten he was somehow untouchable.

Somehow..

The Kusa jounin knew a lost cause when he saw one, and apparently his student was a lost cause. But even though he was, the jounin was still determined to defend his student, cause that's what teachers do.

That one phrase stopped the Kiri commanders in their tracks, and Mei, out of everyone there, feared for all of their lives. It was one thing to insult Ryoku, but it was another thing to insult her. Friends and family were the most important things to Ryoku, and such an insult wouldn't be let go.

"Evacuate the genin!" Mogatari suddenly shouted, and teams of jounin appeared in the room and ushered and carried some genin out of the room, the jounin-sensei's were helpless but to follow the order.

"Everyone get out of the room! Now!" Tora, before leaving, shouted, "Byakko, I don't care for the results, but your team is disquialified!"

The Kiri-nin were able to get everyone out of the room, save for hte Kusa team's sensei and that one genin. The jounin was duty bound to stay with his student, and the genin was unable to move anything save for his lips.

The jounin, kiri and otherwise, strained their ears to listen to what was going on within the room, a room which Meizu sealed.

"So..whatcha..gonna..do? Attack..a downed..ninja..?..Coward...I bet...you're a kiri nin..and the only reason why you got a different hitai-ate is because you killed your whole clan in the civil war," the genin rasped out, still insulting, he knew he lost but pissing off someone he thought couldn't hurt him or face expulsion or execution seemed like a really good ego boosting idea.

The jounin evacuees heard every word, and everyone of them knew that for whatever reason, that genin would never see the light of day ever again.

"Shut up Himawari! I heard the Kiri-nin talking they were saying stuff about this guy being really strong, pissing him off might not be a good thing right now," the Kusa jounin said.

"Mei.." Kisame said, "I know you're hiding something, otherwise you wouldn't have forced Mog to call for an evacuation."

"Yeah, I mean I know someone must've insulted him in some way or something like that," Meizu said, "So what's up, you seem to know him best anyway. Why was his reaction bad enough to actually force you to pull rank with Mog. The Seven are above the other commanders..but why'd you do it?"

"It's because..well..." Mei said, "I'm his fiance."

"Aw hell...that kid just insulted the most powerful shinobi in all of Kiri...and also insinuated that he didn't have what it takes to protect you.." Tora said, "Congratualtions by the way...anyway...shit."

"Excuse me," a Konoha jounin said, "But I couldn't help but hear you say that that genin is the most powerful shinobi of Kiri...is that true?"

"Yes, apparently the Chunin Exams also served a second purpose," Mogatari said, "The second purpose was to test the ability of Kiri to function without its Kage."

"So? What does that have to do with the super powered genin?" the Konoha-nin asked.

"That Kusa genin just pissed off our Kage," Shiki said deadpan.

'_Shit!_' was thought that passed through the minds of all that didn't know about that little tidbit.

Back in the sealed arena, Byakko walked over to Ryoku and got reabsorbed by the original self, as did Shinobu. The Kusa Jounin watched transfixed by a sudden tranformation. It wasn't like any henge he had ever seen. He watched as the genin he knew as Genbu physically aged right before his very eyes. The final outcome being the form of the Mizukage standing before him. His expression being one that would cause all nine bijuu to flee by even just a glance.

'_Himawari..you fucked up big time..you really fucked up big time.._' the Kusa Jounin thought.

'_Oh...SHIT!_' Himawari had finally realized just how screwed he was at the end of the transformation.

Ryoku's mere physical appearance and facial expression was all it took to convey just how badly the genin would wish for death. Ryoku hadn't even unleashed his auras, his power had yet to be manifested in the physial plane.

"Gaki, I know you know how screwed you are," Ryoku stated, "When I'm through with you, you'll be wishing for death, but I wont give it to you..no..I really have no intention to kill you."

"W-what do you plan on doing to him..Mizukage-sama?" the jounin asked, his student was laying on the ground behind him now.

"I know for a fact that he is the last of the Kiyone clan, the last of wielder of his bloodline limit," Ryoku said, "I will be taking away his Kekkai Gekai now, as well as making sure that what I do in here does not reach your superiors. I shall be crippling your student. When you get back to kiri he will be used for breeding stock, all villages value their bloodline limits, Kusa being no exception. I wonder how your village will feel when it finds out that perhaps the bloodline limit was not an actual bloodline but a set of clan techniques..hmm..I wonder how your village will react to that theory after finding out that the children of that genin are unable to use that genetic gift."

"I think your rage has made you a little nuts, Mizukage-sama, no one can do that, not even the Six Paths Sage," Himawari said from the ground, forgetting his fear after convincing his mind that the Mizukage was crazy.

Ryoku ignored the genin's words and simply waved a hand in the genin's direction. A kind of wisp of smoke removed itself from the boy's body and drifted on a none existent breeze over to Ryoku, who pulled out a blood filled orb, the smoke entering it.

"What in the world is that?" the jounin couldn't help but asking.

"The blood of the Kiyone of old, the purer form of the blood, as well as a container of such evolution," Ryoku stated, "For the time being I shall be holding on to the bloodline limit until such a time that I find a worthy wielder of such a tool."

"Well, thanks for at least sparing his life," the Kusa jounin said, and picked up his student, "Himawari-kun, can you move your had for me?"

The student was unable to, it was a test to see if Ryoku really had ruined the genin's career with a wave of his hand.

"I guess...this is the end of his journey huh," the jounin said.

"Had your genin not spoken so boldly, we would not be in this mess," Ryoku stated and walked to the sealed door, which he unsealed and walked through the path formed by the waiting jounin, genin, and comanders.

When Ryoku could no longer be sensed, his presence having finally left the place, Mogatari decided to continue the tournament..

"Seiryuu," Mogatari said, "Get yourself re-aged, your whole team was disquialified already, no reason for you to remain."

"Hai," Zabuza said, and shunshin'd away to his apartment, where Ryuumusha and Keigo were waiting.

Ryoku was calm enough to send tow of his selves to Zabuza's apartment, a place where he stayed when his clan's compoud was too stuffy for him.

"So..can I be me again?" Zabuza asked.

"Sure," Ryuumusha said.

"Done," Keigo said, before the two of them disappeared, leaving a naked Zabuza in his apartment, his clothes having ripped from the experience of rapidly aging, and it had hurt too.

Ryoku had walked away from the location of the second part of the exam, each step taking him farther and farther away from the genin whose career he had just ruined. Little did he know, that Mei had followed him, having had to use several shunshins just to catch up to him, as each stride, each step took him a distance further than the last. An inch became a foot, a foot became a meter, and a meter became a mile.

"Ryo-kun," Mei said finally catching up to him, she should have known he would head straight for his office, he still didn't reveal where exactly it was that he lived, other than his office, and his mind. She knew for a fact that he had his own home within the village, just as he had a home in the mountains of Mori no Kuni.

"Hai," Ryoku replied, from behind his desk, he was busying himself with paperwork, manually and physically doing it as opposed to his habit of having it done in his mind.

"I know your upset," she said, as she moved behind him and tried to massage his shoulders to try and make him more relaxed, "Its over, you have exacted revenge on the genin. He deserved it anyway."

"Hai," he said not really minding her, his thoughts were obviously on other things, as even his paperwork looked like it was being completed by a robot, luckily there were only approvals for some D-ranks.

"C'mon, this isn't like you," she said, "How bout you tell me what's wrong? I'm willing to listen you know."

"I almost failed my precious people once before," Ryoku said after a few minutes of silence, "It had nothing to do with my determination, my mindset, or any kind of emotion. But had still failed them in a way, they could have died back then, if it weren't for their luck."

"But they were alright in the end right," she said, "That's what matters right..I'm sure they forgave you."

"They did," he said, "I lacked the power to fend off our attackers that time. But now I have power.."

"So what went wrong, I know the family and friends are very important to you, I also know that you wouldn't give into such an emotion...well not like earlier.." she said, deciding to hug him since it seemed to be what he needed, though she had to force him to stop with his paperwork.

"I now have the power to protect my precious people, but what if I lose control of myself, what if one day I give into the power," he said, "My power pulsates with every emotion I feel, sometimes I need a certain emotion to fuel my power, anger and rage being the most destructive of all emotions, jealousy only being second to them."

"You're stronger than that, you didn't kill the genin remember," she said, "Sure you crippled him for life and took away his bloodline limit, but you didn't kill him. I'm sure you wanted to, in your rage at his insinuation that you wouldn't be able to protect me even from yourself. I believe in you, and in your ability to protect me. So can you stop sulking now. We all have our moments of weakness, we all have our faults."

"Hai..fine.." he said, letting his frustration and anger at himself flow, and go away.

"Now I want you to relax, no work for you today, ok?" she said.

"..Hai.." he said, conceeding defeat, he made his thoughts move on from those that made him question his ability to protect those important to him, never again would he feel such weakness, and never again would he let his rage bubble forth, '_I'm supposed to be the carefree upbeat god-like immortal..sheesh._'

As he was busy forgetting this recent mishap, and reforging his confidence and self worth, he failed to notice Mei help him relax a little bit more. He also failed to notice as she engaged the sound proofing seals of the office.

"Ooh..my..God.." was the first thing that came to mind, when Mei began her skillful ministration, kunoichi really had such a useful class.

With the prelims over, the lineup having been set, the instructions having been given, and bets with the foreign jounin having been made, the commanders decided to make their way to the Mizukage's office in order to submit their reports. But when they got there, they were stopped by Shinobu, who for some reason couldn't take their reports, the written or the oral one.

"..T-there i-is..t-too m-much...Oh God...S-sorry..kind of busy...shit...right now..." Shinobu couldn't take it any longer and simply poofed like a shadow clone.

"What the hell?" Kisame said, "What's going on?"

"Guys..its locked..and the privacy seals have been activated.." Meizu said, while Tora tried to open the doors.

"I'm leaving, I'll be back tomorrow," Tora said after pressing his ear to the door, he somehow had managed to hear what the heck was going on inside, "Remember that Shinobu is a mere part of the whole that is Ryoku-sama...that said..I'm leaving.." '_Lucky bastard_.'

"H-Hey! Tora!" Meizu shouted, "Wait up!"

"I think...yeah...I'm gonna get a drink," Kisame said, following Tora and Meizu out.

"We'll come too!" Tamago announced as he dragged Mogatari along with him, the man's face had flushed red when he realized what the hell was going on in the Mizukage's office.


	34. Chapter 34

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-four**_

During the month of training, the foreigners, while able to train, were brutally bothered by the Kiri civilian population. Many had visited the training grounds that the foreigners were allowed to use for preparation training for the finals. All in all, there were only ten chunin candidates, three from Kiri itself, three from Konoha, one from Kumo, one from Iwa, one from Suna, and one from Taki.

While the Kiri genin were given every available resource to further their training, the other participants were only given the training grounds, and a load of bothersome civilians that wanted to watch them, and pestered them about their hometowns. It was difficult training with dozens of Kiri citizens watching your every move. Some of them laughing when you falter, and booing when you do something right.

The Konoha genin and the Kumo genin were the ones who had the hardest time training out of all the participants seeing as Kiri didn't really like them all that much. There were even a few training accidents, Kiri-nin claiming that they were in a nearby training ground testing new jutsu that just so happened to get out of control and nearly kill the genins. There were members of the Seven who would shunshin to where the genin were training, most of the time drunk and pick fights with the jounin present, and if one wasn't present, then the genin had it tough. When a member of the Seven did barge into the training ground, they were usually stopped by the only female member of the Seven, Mei, before any lasting damage could be inflicted.

The Kumo genin had the privilege of being mentally scarred when a group of Chunin passed by, all bloody, chasing a group of academy students. When requested to explain the incident, one of the stragglers, a Chunin herself, it was explained that they were getting rid of the weak. It was brutal and efficient, but that made sure that only the strong became shinobi, while the weak, while making sure that Kiri had no weak shinobi.

Only a few members of the foreign delegations were spared he harsh treatment of the village, those being the nobles, and the ones being courted by a Kiri-nin, like Tsunade who was being courted by Asano Todoh, or that Kumo kunoichi that was being courted by Kawa Kendo the ex-Anbu who's ex wanted to castrate him every time she saw him.

All was relatively normal in the village, save for the fact that everyone was acting in a more hostile manner. Then there was also the fear, respect, and awe, that people expressed when the Mizukage himself passed by. The whole village knew what had transpired in the prelims of the third part of the Chunin exam. Something that big was hard to keep secret. The secret was also out that Mei was engaged to Ryoku.

Due to the outing of the engagement, Mei realized why exactly Ryoku did not announce it to the rest of the village, it was because of all the unneeded attention being displayed by the shinobi and civilian alike. She was treated like a celebrity, even the foreigners treated her as such, probably because of her newly revealed importance to the village.

Some of the foreign shinobi delegations members also had a knack for trying to kidnap her while she was in the presence of none other than the Mizukage, Ryoku didn't take those kinds of things laying down. Every attempt ended up with the assailants becoming puddles in the ground, all that was left was liquid matter, with absolutely no indication that it had previously been a person.

The Konoha delegation alone had lost their entire escort, six had been returned to the Hokage, the rest were puddles. Three of the six Ne/ROOT Anbu were dead. Tsunade remained as the only escort from the Konoha contingent that hadn't died yet. Todoh was trying his best to make sure she didn't get into a situation where she would place her life in danger.

The most brutal thing that had so far been done to any participant in the Finals, was having to bothered in the middle of the night by prank phone calls made by genuine academy students. The Chunins being the ones to provide the secure phone numbers of the rooms that the genin were staying in. The phones in the rooms were originally meant as decoration or as a means of communication between guests and staff of the hotels, but somehow the Chunins had managed to tap into these phone lines and goaded their students in making sure that the genin of the other villages turned into insomniacs.

It was a village wide conspiracy, and the village didn't give a damn. If there was one thing that one should be able to count on in a shinobi village, it was that a shinobi village was the most dangerous place for any foreigner. Either one's mental health would be targeted, or one's physical health would be targeted, it would usually be one or the other, but Kiri decided to torture both.

There was one night that Ryoku had gone so far as to fly around on a broomstick, and conjured images of ghosts, and went so far as to make the mists cover the village during that one night. With the help of his commanders, he made the whole village the scariest place in the world. Sure it made the commanders, including the Kage himself, rather tired the next day, but it made the foreign shinobi not only tired, but extremely jumpy, paranoid, and panicky.

While most of the nobles in the village were spared the horrors that Ryoku had unleashed, there was one particular Daimyo that was not spared, that being the Mizu Daimyo as he was the only one that Ryoku could afford to scare shitless. No one bothered to question his sanity when he did that. They just assumed that the Daimyo deserved it.

When the date for the finals had finally arrived, Ryoku made sure that all preparations were complete, and if there was something that still needed to be fixed, he did it personally, and with magic too.

The arena for the Finals had been made to accomodate a nigh limitless capacity, if chairs were lacking, chairs would simply appear. Ryoku had managed ot make something similar to the Room of Requirement. The Arena.

Among the original ten candidates only eight would be participating, two of the Konoha genin had mental breakdowns two days before the Finals. Their jounin senseis had pulled them out of the competition. The Kiri-nin, Chunin and above, had cheered at that, and the genin were just happy that there were two less competition not really caring much for the circumstances.

Before the start of the Finals, Ryoku met with his genin, the three that would be participating and vying for the rank Chunin. He wanted to wish them luck, sure it could be considered as favoritism, but these were his genin, Kiri genin. He had a right to at least wish them luck, and give them some last minute tips.

"Mizukage-sama," the three genin said bowing in reverence and respect as he approached them.

"I just wanted to wish you luck in your fights," Ryoku said, "As well as tell you that it would be in your advantage to slowly leak some killing intent before the start of your matches. It will have the effect of making you look willing to kill your opponent."

"Arigato for the advice Mizukage-sama," the three genin said.

"Well, that's it, I'll be going now," Ryoku said, "Again good luck," he then teleported out of there, no swirling mists or any kind of element.

He appeared a moment later in the Kage box, a special box which he was the only one inhabiting as no other kage deemed it safe to stay in another village even for only a day. Accompanying him there a few minutes later was Mei, his fiance, and Kujira the daimyo. Then right after announcing the start of the Final part of the Chunin Exams, he had his other selves appear. Ryuumusha leaning against a wall, Shinobu crouching in the back of the box, Keigo standing beside the daimyo as a guard, and Byakko simply sitting in a chair he conjured.

The foreigners in the audience noticed that something was amiss, there was a sense of danger creeping about the whole arena, and it wasn't just because there were ninja mixed in with the crowd. The genin were releasing some killing intent, intent on following the advice of their Kage. Some of the jounin had picked up on this pre-battle scare tactic, and decided to leave for the loo, and secretly aid their younger comrades by providing some added killing intent firepower, hidden beneath the stands, and disguised as a part of the walls. Even the Anbu that were back decided to do it as well. These high ranking shinobi were experienced enough that their killing intent would not get traced back to them.

"Mei..don't you dare," Ryoku said, stopping his fiance and assistant from joining in on the fun as it would be rather obvious that she was releasing some KI of her own due to him being there with her, "It wouldn't do to get caught in the act, especially with me sitting here with you."

"Fine," she said slumping and pouting in her seat, looking all cute, while Ryoku's other forms snickered in the background.

They watched the matches progress, but at the same time Ryoku kept his senses trailed on something else. He had also left a clone of himself in his office to track all movement around the village, and had remembered to return himself and Zabuza into the database. There were more Kumo and Konoha shinobi in the village than before the start of the Finals. They were moving about, not looking like they were collaborating with one another, but were moving into stategic positions all over the village, avoiding the training grounds, and the watery areas.

'_Alert all forces...we are being invaded,_' Ryoku mentally informed his commanders, '_Get to my office, coordinate our pre-emptive strike, search and destroy, I will not have anything wrong happen during this historical event._'

'_Hai!_' was the immediate mental reply of his subordinates.

It was only the fourth match, and some of the spectators noticed that some of the shinobi were leaving the arena, the genin in their competitor's box believed that the kiri-nin had lost interest, and didn't really believe in the abilities of their genin. So the foreign genin made fun of the Kiri-nin, trying to get a rise out of them, and well that didn't go as well as planned.

The genin too were contacted, directly by Mogatari who was coordinating the attacks all over the village, he decided to let the genin know about the reason for the other kiri-nin leaving the stadium. They accepted the reason, happy that their comrades were prioritizing the continued existence of their home, even though they would miss their genin fight.

By the sixth battle, which was the semi-finals, the nin that had been creeping stealthily in the direction of the stadium finally unleashed their attack. None of them were Kumo-nin, all of them were members of Danzo's Ne division. Ryoku knew it immediately as soon as he noticed one man's Ne tattoo from out of the corner of his eye.

"Proctor continue the match," Ryoku ordered as he shed his robes, and revealed his Taijutsu no Tatsujin and Avatar of Time outfit, his blades already in his hands. The only part of his Kage uniform that he had on was his hat. His own personal creation.

"Hai! Mizukage-sama!" the proctor said, and ordered for the match and the Finals to continue.

Nothing was going to interrupt the match, and Ryoku inteneded to personally make sure that these Konoha-nins knew not to overestimate their abilities and worth, especially against a Kami level shinobi.

There were twenty-seven of them all in all, all of them Anbu level, enough to be more than a match against a normal Kage, but when did Ryoku ever get to be normal. He was the Taijutsu no Tatsujin, the Avatar of Time. He was Harry 'Fucking' Potter for crying out loud, the Boy-Who-Lived, though no longer a boy but a really old man, he was the Chosen One or so some damnable prophecy said so. He had a teacher of sorts that was more powerful than gods, and that had a habit of throwing him for a loop. He was also the Yondaime Mizukage, and had the responsibility of making sure that his village's inhabitants were protected, most especially while within the walls of the very village which he himself founded.

Twenty-seven, such a lucky number, he felt like it was a good time to dish out some real damage, mid-air, and otherwise. While the genin had the arena below, he and his own foes would have the roof all to themselves.

They paused at the perimeter of the roof, deciding not to battle with a kage at the same time. A decision which they would soon be regretting. There was a fine line between stupidity, and suicide, they had obviously chosen suicide, for that was what choosing to go one on one with the teacher of Rikudou Sennin, of the Uzumaki Sennin, of the Seigi Musei.

They seemed to be waiting for something, some kind of signal, but Ryoku did not simply stand and wait to be attacked, he attacked.

He sprung into action as soon as his feet touched the tiles of the roof of the stadium, he darted to the nearest of his opponents, and disemboweled him right before cutting off his head in one fluid motion. Before the next one could react, he had already moved on to the sixth of the Konoha-nin. Ryuumusha having turned the second opponent into minced meat, Keigo having barbecued the third one using the fire from the tip of his newest spear, Shinobu having simply snapped the neck of the fourth, and Byakko having devoured the fifth one after shifting into tiger form. Literally devoured, as in eating the man alive, starting with his toes, the only part which he left out was the man's genitals, as he couldn't and wouldn't touch those with a twenty-seven foot pole.

The sixth opponent had only been able to blink before his life slipped into and through the cracks of death. His spirit finding himself in the very presence of the Shinigami who simply stared at the efficient brutality that the spirit in front of him had died. Ryoku had cut out every single one of the man's nerves, ending with the removal of the man's spine and brain within the span of one micro second. His only tools were his blades, and no magic had been involved save for the slowing down of time. The body of the victim looked relatively intact save for a thumb sized hole in at the back of the man's neck where the spine and brain were pulled out of.

Ryoku's next victim was number eleven, as the seventh man was turned into a literal stuffed turkey by Keigo who slammed numerous paper seals on the man which turned him in a literal stuffed turkey, Shinobu froze the eighth man's heart by thrusting his own hand through the man's chest and freezing it upon touching it, Byakko forcefed the ninth man his previous victim's genitals using a thirty foot long pole and included the pole in the force feeding, and Ryuumusha shoved a three inch thick and three foot long pole up the tenth man's ass as he felt that the man looked enough like an Uchiha that the stick wouldn't make a difference.

Ryoku dealt with the eleventh man by blasting him with a dose of potent and concentrated Killing Intent. The man dropped to the roof in a blubbering mess, and ended up killing himself by impaling himself on a marshmallow that he found beside him on the roof. With the suicide of his eleventh victim, Ryoku moved onto the 12th of the Konoha-nin not giving his other selves enough time to move on to him, he picked the woman up by the right breast and proceeded to punch the flesh off of the woman, and ended with a roundhouse kick to her temple while still holding onto her breast, when he was through with her the only thing of her that remained was her bruised breast, everything else had been turned to paste by Mei who decided to disregard orders due to the attention Ryoku had given to the other woman.

"Get back to the booth," Ryoku stated after seeing her as his other selves took out another twenty-four of the intruders by sending green lights into the men and women's chests, killing them instantly.

"But I can help!" she insisted.

"Just get down to your grandfather, you can defend him from that one that just shunshin'd down there to wreak some havoc," he said pointing to the nin that stood behind Kujira and prepared to be merciful and kill the old man via a kunai through the skull.

"Fine, I'll take him out," she said quickly, unsealed her special blade and cut the man to pieces from where she was standing on the roof, her sword was like a whip anyway, it had that long a reach.

"Didn't I say, get back down there?" Ryoku said, turning his half draconic face to her, his other selves had vanished, re-merging with the original, the core of the whole that was Ryoku. There were only three Konoha-nins remaining, and they could niether run nor attack thanks to three petrifying spells, cast simultaneously.

"But I can help you you know," she insisted.

"If you don't get back down there, I will hand you my hat," Ryoku threatened her, since she was already slated into becoming his wife, and was already his assistant, as well as a member of the Seven.

"Err...no thanks, bye," she said quickly and raced back down to the booth.

"Feast of the Dragon," he whispered as he transformed all the way into his western dragon animagus form, and flew up into the sky.

The match down below in the arena had stopped when a massive shadow rose up into the air. It was a truly rare sight to see a dragon, as well as a frightening one. If there was one thing that could claim to be powerful, that could be used as a symbol of a village's might, it would be the presence of a dragon. Here was a dragon, one that suddenly dived, his path looked to be a collision course with the stadium, but instead, he pulled out of the dive at the last second devouring the three frozen in magic Konoha-nin, then flew back up, over the village, and into the clouds.

A swirl of mist later, Ryoku reappeared in the Kage booth, beside Kujira and Mei. He picked up his discarded robes, and put them back on..

"Are you planning on forfeiting?" Ryoku asked the two remaining and last combatants in the arena, a Kiri genin and the sole remaining Konoha genin of the competition.

"I surrender!" the Konoha genin shouted and ran out of the stadium as fast as his inexperienced legs could carry him.

"Winner, Koori Hana of Kiri!" the Chunin in the arena announced holding up the female genin's hand, it was a chunin since all the jounin were called to arms to defend the village, as well as provide some overkill.

At the end of the day, the nobles got their show, the villages got to showcase the capabilities of the next generation of ninja, and all the Kiri genin in the Finals became chunin, so did the Konoha genin named Shimura Kenji since he knew when to quit.


	35. Chapter 35

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

Note 2: This might potentially be the most confusing chapter to date, due to the time traveling that shall occur..sort of...

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-five**_

"From the reports of my spies," Kujira said, he was speaking to Ryoku in a private meeting in one of the empty warehouses that could be found in the capital of Mizu no Kuni, "The other countries' leaders find Kiri, and by relation, Mizu no Kuni as a strong nation, especially with my family's ability to stay in power through a civil war. My spies have also uncovered that the hidden villages that participated in the exams respect and fear Kiri, you've outdone yourself it seems."

"So then, the mist is known as what?" Ryoku asked, then sipped some tea as that was the beverage they were enjoying.

"The Bloody Mist, due in part to whatever you did to the mists of your village," Kujira said, "Though I did notice that they weren't as bloody and death filled when I left."

"Couldn't have them in that condition all year round," Ryoku said, "We wouldn't be as hidden if a good nose could find us, now would we."

"I suppose so," Kujira said, "Another thing that was found out was that you have a new name. Listed especially in the Konoha Bingo Book, you have been dubbed as the Kirigakure no Akaryuu, a double S-class threat."

"I assumed as much, but are they aware that it is a transformation or do they think it a jutsu or a summon?" Ryoku asked, he himself had been a bit too busy to actually gather such information himself.

"No one is sure what you did," Kujira admitted, "Even I have to admit that I don't really know."

"That's good to know," Ryoku said, "It wouldn't do if one of my trump cards was revealed."

"One of? You have more?" Kujira asked, curiously.

"Of course I do! I'm OLD! I have loads more! I'm a one man army at it is," Ryoku boasted.

"I believe you," Kujira said, "I of all people have no place doubting your abilities, ye who founded Kiri."

"O'course, the only reason you know that is because of the thing with Mei," Ryoku said.

"So, when will you be stepping down?" Kujira asked, "You've done your part as Mizukage, the Mist has never been stronger."

"Who is the present Hokage?" Ryoku asked out of the blue.

"I believe a Yondaime had just been instated," Kujira said, "Namikaze Minato, I believe his name is."

"Ah..then you will be able to retire in about two years," Ryoku said, "I will need to make sure that my decision to have my wife lead Kiri in my stead will not be questioned by any of my present subordinates."

"Your wife? She's still your fiance you know," Kujira said.

"She will be when I step down," Ryoku said, "I'm hoping to time it when she has her period or something like that."

"What? In that state she could be a monster," Kujira said, knowing full well what a women suffering from the red tide could do, he shivered, "That's crazy! If an assassin tried to off her during the ceremony, then there would be hell to pay."

"I have already decided," Ryoku said, "Make sure you give your approval, you will still be Daimyo when I announce my decision, and you will still be on the Council of Water."

"She will have my vote, loyalty to the family and all that of course," Kujira said, "So..what will her new clan name be? Have you got one?"

"I have thought it over, and have decided on one," Ryoku said, "It has been a while since I've used one."

"So what will it be?" Kujira asked.

"I will use two," Ryoku said, "I plan on having at least two children, one will use the name Jikoku, while the other one will use the name Toukou. I will be known as Toukou Ryoku, while my wife will be known as Jikoku Mei."

"That's a bit confusing isn't it? A two in one family," Kujira said.

"It's Takeshi's fault, his direct descendants are two clans," Ryoku said.

"Oh? Which?" Kujira asked.

"Uchiha from the elder son, and Senju from the younger," Ryoku said.

"Well...I wasn't expecting that..." Kujira said, "Two of the most powerful clans in all the lands are direct descendants of the Rikudou Sennin..no wonder they're so powerful."

"Worry not my friend," Ryoku said, "The Royal Family too will be most powerful."

"But not as well known as those two," Kujira said.

"The Uchiha and Senju are fools, while I and my future family are true shinobi," Ryoku said.

"Ah yes, hidden in the shadows, unseen, silent, yet the deadliest warriors in the world," Kujira said in approval, "I really like your style, O Taijutsu no Tatsujin, Sennin no Seinsei."

"You've just given me another title," Ryoku said appreciatively, "Master of the Sages, I like it."

"Well its suits you and it is true," Kujira said refilling his cup, "You did train the Rikudou Sennin and the First Sennin, the Uzumaki Sennin."

"That I did, that I did," Ryoku said and finished his cup of jasumin cha.

#

Kirigakure no Sato had not suffered at all due to the double invasion attempt during the end of the First Chunin Exam. They got the opposite of what Kumo and Danzo wanted to happen, they got a huge image boost, thanks to the swift actions of the Kiri-nin and the Kage personally protecting the delegats of the other nations from a perceived possible threat, not much of a threat considering Ryoku had dealt with the men and women of Konoha's Ne ANBU Division swiftly, the battle if it could be called such lasting no more than a few minutes.

There was also the fact that the Chunin Exam was not halted or postponed while the invasion was occurring, it was a testament to the confidence, strength, power, and ability of Kiri to simply move forward, paying no mind to such a minor distraction as an attempt to cripple the great village.

Mei had been taked with overseeing the village in Ryoku's absence as he had another legitimate reason to leave the village in someone else's care. He had an official meeting with the Mizu Daimyo in the capital of the country. No one made a fuss over his not being in the village, as any paperwork that was delivered to his office was still looked over and taken care of, thanks to a very complex seal on the man's desk. No matter where Ryoku was he still received his beloved paperwork.

Mei was only tasked with everything else, ranging from making sure that the village's defenses were in place, that there were no breaches in the defenses, that all the inhabitants of the village were all legally there, that the missions were handed out, that the mission payments were handed out, and a host of other menial things.

Little did she know that someone was already planning for her future, not just her married life, but her actual career.

There was a masked kunoichi of Kiri that went by the name Kurenai Kei, the Crimson Whip. She only used the name she had made for herself. She wore a white bodysuit, one that clung to her form perfectly, showing off her curves, or at least they would have if she was not almost permanently wearing a tan hooded poncho which hid her curves from perverted eyes. No one but the Mizukage knew what she really looked like, and all that anyone could see of her body were her eyes. Her face was covered in a white mask, her hair tucked underneath somehow, since her file noted that she had long hair. Her hitai-ate was tied around her waist like a belt.

She was one of the elite jounin of Kiri, an assassin on par with the Seven, but had constantly refused a position amongst, then stating that she was happy with what she already had.

No one knew where she lived either, all personal information on her was classified, and required the highest of clearances, that being the approval of the Kage himself, and Ryoku wasn't about to divulge such secrets, not even to his present fiance.

The reason why she was given the name and title Crimson Whip was because she used a blade with nearly the same properties as the blade whip or sword whip which Mei herself used as a member of the Seven, the only difference being that it was permanently long, and chakra could only coat it, and not be infused. It was also semi-permanently coated in blood, whose blood, no one knew, but most suspected it was the blood of her victims.

Mei had met her on a few occassions, she had even met this fellow whip wielder as she listened to the oral report about the woman's most recent mission, which, while not assassination, had been delivering an important message to Ame's Hanzo, whatever the message contained, both assassin and Mei were not aware of the contents, but knew that it was from one kage to another would be kage.

What the woman had told her after the report was made sounded rather odd to her ears, as Mei didn't know if it was a hidden message of some sort or not..

"Worry not...your day too shall come.." Kurenai Kei said.

Mei did not know whether it was a threat, a compliment, advice, a taunt, or a coded message for the Mizukage, but all the same it was odd and out of place. The woman left soon after that taking another S-rank mission scroll with her.

With the Mizukage not within the village walls and with no important event being planned, gate duty returned to the capable hands of the Chunin. The Chunin had seen a lot of people pass through the gates of the village, many of whom were very strong, others were famous, and a small number of those that left never returned. They guards were charged with welcoming and wishing luck to those that came and left through their assigned gate. They were also the defenders of any that would wish harm to the village that passed through the gates, though it rarely happened.

They were also some of the lucky blokes that had the privilege of speaking with Kurenai Kei, along with a number of Kiri's legends, minus the Kage as he had a habit of leaving via other means, bypassing signing out via the logbook, not that it really mattered.

This day, they not only spoke to Kurenai Kei who seemed to be busy with her job, whatever it was, the Chunin at the gate, Kawa Miura and Kuma Mumei, were able to speak with another of Kiri's secretive jounin.

The jounin in question was known as Shinku Rensa, Crimson Chain, as his weapon of choice, which could usually be covering his arms was stained crimson with the blood of his victims. He wore a bloodstained sleeveless shirt, dark brown cargo pants, black steel toed boots, steel plated fingerless gloves, and the most impotrant part of his ensamble was his mask. His mask covered his entire head, not even his eyes were visible.

"Yo!" Shinku Rensa greeted the Chunin as he stopped to sign the log book, "What's up? And if you answer 'the sky' I'll add you to my chains."

"Eheh...almost did...uhm..well, you just missed Kurenai Kei...again," Miura said, "Why is that anyway, you always seem to miss her."

"Ah..that.." he said, scratching the back of his head, "Erm...orders I guess you could say..."

"Oh...wasn't expecting that," Mumei said, "I was expecting something else...something along the lines of you two not getting along or something."

"Yeah..well..that's how it is," he said, "We even have a schedule of sorts...just to make sure we avoid each other."

"You have a schedule?" Miura asked, "Why?"

"Orders...listen, there's this guy at the capital..a member of the court...he's also got orders to avoid myself and Kurenai Kei, until a certain time in the future," he said, "Everything's already been predetermined."

"Why? And if its confidential, just say so and we'll let you leave," Mumei said.

"Its not really confidential...its complicated," he Shinku Rensa said, "It all stems from a kinjutsu..and a kind of Kekkai Genkai..."

"Kinjutsu accident huh, well whatever, you got a mission huh, would it be possible to know what?" Miura asked.

"Ah...I'm supposed to beat the crap outta a Konoha kunoichi, that's all, well sort of," he replied, "I'm a little confused about my orders...but a mission's a mission," he then bent his knees in preparation for a jump, "Well, gotta go!" he leapt into the air, descending into the mists. Unbeknownst to the two chunin as soon as his entire body entered the mists, he teleported away into the forests of Fire Country. The ability being part of his kind of bloodline limit. Kurenai Kei, having a similar ability, similar but not as strong.

In the capital of Water Country, specifically in the castle of the Daimyo, a young man who looked to permanently be fifteen for some reason walked through the hallways and corridors with no real destination. He had arrived only recently, having been introduced to the Daimyo by none other than the Mizukage himself. His name was Toukou Shiro, he was the son of the chosen heir of Mizu no Kuni, according to the Daimyo himself who's own child, a girl, had married into a shinobi clan. Whoever the the father of Shiro was, must have been quite powerful or impressive to have been named Heir.

Ryoku's entire family was screwed up, even before he got married and did the dirty deed which would produce him twin heirs.

Shiro was tasked with keeping track of all the going ons in the court, he was in all intents and purposes a spy for his father, as well as a prince, the only one the court and country would see for a few years.

Shiro had black hair, while his twin had dark red to bloody brown hair which he normally hid under a bandana or a mask. He had a single, his right, emerald green eye, and the other one had a tendency to change colors depending on the phase of the moon. His brother had a single, his left, emerald green eye, while the other one had a tendency to shift between gold and sapphire depending on the time of day. If Shiro had a scar over cutting a path from the left side of his forehead through his eye ending at the tip of his mouth, he would be an almost exact replica of his father, and it would really be obvious to people who his father was.

Unlike his father who had a tendency to cover up his technicolored eye, Shiro had half of his head covered in bandages, making him look a whole lot weaker. He was a puzzle of court officials and nobles as to how such a young man could freely walk around the castle and the capital itself without an escort and live through all the attempts on his life withe that one blindside looking head injury that wasn't.

At present he was actually just waiting for the daimyo to get back from his meeting with the Mizukage, it was quite confusing to him, who had the bad luck or good luck, depending on when you ask, of having a father who decided to play with the time stream using his family as the other pieces or dummies for his experiments in time. He decided to finally wait at the main gate into the castle grounds for the Daimyo who could straighten out who was the Mizukage of this time period, his father or his mother, as he wasn't sure whether it was the Yondaime or the Godaime that was in power, though he had the sneaking suspicion that it was the Yondaime for some reason. He didn't particularly know all the details of history as he was too lazy to actually listen to his tutors when it came to such a subject matter and chose to view the timeline for the answers he needed for his proficiency tests.

"Have you been waiting long, Shiro?" Kujira asked, finally getting back from his meeting with the Mizukage.

"Daimyo-sama..who is the Mizukage?" Shiro asked.

"The Yondaime is..why? Have you heard otherwise?" Kujira asked curious about the boy's answer.

"No..well..it depends..Otou-sama is really confusing sometimes..." Shiro said, as his meetings with his father were very confusing some of the time. Ryoku had managed to spread out his consciousness to all the time periods that his family inhabited, it made conversations with him about current events a little bit confusing.

"Tell me about it," Kujira said, "He just told me what he plans to do...so I'm not so in the dark now...but still a little bit confused...just as I was meeting you not so long ago.."

"Really...well don't bother telling me about it..I already know it...most of it anyway," Shiro said as he walked the presnt daimyo back into the castle proper, flicking his wrist every now and then, flinging senbon everywhere he perceived a threat to the daimyo was, and there were always several of them. None had succeeded to even expose themselves before Shiro killed them.

"Was that really necessary?" Kujira asked Shiro after the two of them had entered the castle proper.

"It would be rather suspicious if you survived from whatever they had planned on doing," Shiro said, knowing full well that his father would ensure that the shinigami's icy fingers did not touch the old man for a certain amount of time.

"Alright, fine," Kujira said, then asked, "When will I be meeting your brother?"

"The one that will be twenty-five when we get together in the true present of the timeline? Or the one running around now?" Shiro asked, the reason for his non-aging looks was that he was temporarily out of sync with time, as were the rest of the member of his immediate family, namely his mother and brother, his father being the exception. His mother and brother from the future of the true present.

"The one running around now...?" Kujira asked unsure of his own answer.

"Err...dunno...he and I are technically not born yet.." Shiro said, "Quite confusing isn't it."

"Toukou for the beginning, and Jikoku for time or the timelessness of it all," Kujira said, understanding somewhat the reason for Ryoku's choosing the names.

"Yeah..someting like that," Shiro said, then lead the old man to his own chambers as dealing with the eccentricities and complicacies of Toukou Ryoku was taxing on the mind.

#

Shinku Rensa, also known as Jikoku Takeshi, was the older brother and twin of Toukou Shiro. He found the experience of aging through the timeline as a most fun experience, and at the same time a taxing one on the mind, as there were so many rules and orders that his father had made sure that he, his brotehr, and his mother had to remember. While they couldn't exactly change the past..not that the past was a constant as it too kept changing with every step that Ryoku himself took, they took pleasure in being in more than one place at any given time, and having more than one age at almost any given time. They also got to play around with their former selves, their younger selves. Mei herself having the pleasure of meeting with herself on occassion, nothing wrong with that so long as she had her identity concealed, which was why all files connected to herself and her sons were classified.

Takeshi, had been given the mission of attacking Uzumaki Kushina, one of his father's first student's descendants, his side mission was the part that eluded him, he was supposed to attack her within sensing range of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, a man who had ties to Kiri and Suna through his blood, though he was unaware of it, as well as ties of the Daimyo clan of Nami no Kuni.

'_What ever Tou-san is planning...as much as I'd like no part in it...I have to do it.._' Takeshi mentally mumbled, he had been named after one of his father's students, his first student to be exact.

He arrived in record time at the gates of Konohagakure no Sato, the so called Village Hidden in the Leaves, it wasn't all that hidden since almost everyone in the shinobi world knew where it was located, unlike Kirigakure where one needed a guide to actually find it without getting lost for hours in the mists that protected and hid the village from prying eyes.

This was the first mission that he would be peforming without his mask, revealing his face to the world, luckily no one from Kiri was around to see it. It was part of the orders and rules, 'no one from Kiri can see your entire face', Shiro being the only exception to that rule, his was different, 'no one from anywhere is allowed to see your special eye'.

His family's brand spanking new Kekkai Genkai was the ability to manipulate time, to an extent, use magic, and have unnaturally high chakra and magic reserves. Chakra needed control and magic required imagination. The covering of the special eye, ensured that the flow of chakra was regulated enabling Shiro and Takeshi to have nearly perfect control over their chakra, while the eye patch sealed away the emotion fueled magic, accidental magic to the usual members of the Wizarding World, but when was Harry Potter and anything to do with him normal. He had even bent some of the rules that Alex had told him existed in this world of chakra.

Takeshi and Shiro also had their mother's Kekkai Genkai, the ability to use Futton/Boil Release and Youton/Lava Release jutsu. The brothers, like their mother, and her clan, the Terumi clan, not the Murasaki, were able to use the two styles with unrivaled ability save from another member of the clan, and possibly a jinchuuriki or a training maniac.

He placed an illusion, the magical and undetectable kind over his chains, which were his weapons and which he used as a kind of sleeve. He had to also hide behind an illusion the stench that the blood gave off, he normally used it as a tool for intimidation.

It was a good thing that his clothes weren't what made him famous, else he would have to transfigure those, and that would be a pain in the ass as transfiguration wasn't one of his strong points, he was more of an illusion kind of guy, it came with the territory of being a shinobi and not some Miko.

He walked into the village and almost forgot to remove his hitai-ate, lucky for him that he remembered that he was wearing it, and immediately placed it too under some illusion, one that made the plate look blank.

"Hey you! Guy! Person! Get over here!" a Chunin shouted at Takeshi as he entered the gate and prepared to look for his 'target'.

"You can't just walk into the village without signing in, even the ninja sign in," the other chunin guard said as Takeshi approached them.

"Sorry about that..hehe...I'm not used to walking into ninja villages yet," Takeshi said acting embarassed, "This is my actual first time in a Hidden Village, I actually got lost on the road of life while getting here."

"Well..alright..that's perfectly normal..we've had to deal with some people like you," one chunin said in understanding as it really had happened a few times on their shift before.

Takeshi was handed a pen and the log book, and wrote his real name down, as for his purpose, well he wrote down exactly what he was supposed to do there, but made sure to place a kind of timed illusion which would expire once his business in the village was finished.

"Well, everything seems to be in order," one chunin said as he checked over what Takeshi had written.

Takeshi had written down that he was looking for Uzumaki Kushina, he had a message for her from a friend of her clan, Takeshi didn't know what the heck kind of message did attacking someone convey other than 'I want to kill you', but Takeshi didn't bother thinking too hard about it lest his head get an ache more than usual from all the time jumping he did.

"You should be able to find Uzumaki-san at the Ichiraku Ramen bar, just ask around for direction," the other Chunin said, making Takeshi's job easier.

Once he was beyond visual and audial range of the chunin, he took to the roofs, layering illusions over himself to make his stealth on par with someone who stopped time completely, something which he could do, but only for a short time. But he needed to ask people that were moving around in time, for directions and couldn't just use the time stopping method, as those other people were not part of the thing.

It took him a while before he found his target, she was berating a blonde man who was eating ramen like there was no tomorrow. It looked like he would not have the chance to actually deal a lot of damage to the woman, seeing as phase two of the mission was sitting right there being screamed at by phase one.

But then he remembered that he was supposed to avoid as much property damage as possible, and therefore he had to wait for the woman to be alone in some training ground or something like that. He guessed that the village could probably be considered as within sensing distance of the Hokage.

He followed her to, thankfully, an empty training ground. He was still under heavy illusions, and therefore she was unable to sense his presence. He dropped his illusions once he was standing right behind her, as she was warming up for whatever training she would be performing.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed as he jumped over her attempt to take his head off, and landed several feet in front of her, "What the hell is your problem? You could have killed me!"

"You snuck up on me and expect me not to attack you? What kind of person are you!" she said as he landed in front of her, "What is your purpose surprising me anyway?"

"Eh...well..." he scratched his head, his hands slipping through his luckily still hidden hitai-ate, his chains were also still hidden, it was just the illusions that his his presence which he released, "Ah..well..you see..I'm supposed to give you a message..."

"Well..what is it?" she demanded of him.

"Are you sure you really want to know? Its from a friend of your clan.." he said, hesitantly, scratching his head, a bit in part to embarassment at almost being decapitated by the red scythe she was carrying as her weapon.

"A friend of the clan? Who? If I don't like your answer, I won't hesitate in killing you," she stated, her stance shifting into an attack one.

"..eheh..would you believe me if I said I forgot what the Uzumaki clan called him?" Takeshi did not receive as verbal reply, but had to dodge swipes from the scythe.

She followd up her swipes by forming half seals with her unoccupied hand, then instead of calling out the technique, she pushed him to the ground with the flat of her blade, and slammed her other hand on the ground, immediately where he had landed a mud whirlpool formed.

"Damn it woman! Quit it!" he shouted as he slipped out of time in order to not get stuck in the mud, he diengaged the ability as it took too much energy to perform, as well as was a bit taxing on his sanity, in a way.

He landed where his opponent had started, the spot he stood near before she tried to decapitate him. It was then and there he knew that he could not afford to hold back, how was the Hokage supposed to come to her rescue if he didn't give him a reason to.

"Play time's over," Takeshi said as he got into the relaxed stance which his father favored, he also cancelled the remaining illusions he had on, he even uncovered his eye, unleashing his sealed power.

Kushina felt Takeshi's aura shift from seemingly harmless into extremely dangerous, as soon as he uncovered his other eye, the only part of his face that had been covered. His power exploded out of his, as if he could not fully control the raging inferno of power that circled around him. It was an aura which was sure to be felt by the entire village. But for some reason she had a feeling that she was the only one that could feel it. Which was actually true, as Takeshi instantly erected a barrier to hide his immense aura, it was the first time that he had actually done something like this during a battle. He feared feeling his father's battle ready aura after feeling his own.

"Ready? No? Good," Takeshi said before launching himself in her direction, his natural speed augmented by his aura, a mixture of both magic and chakra, and a bit of his time related bloodline limit. He was probably just as fast as the Hokage, which was faster than Kushina could react.

The first thing he did was punch her in the solar plexus, with enough force to kill a civilian, but for a kunoichi, it would only stun her momentarily. But in a high speed battle, one moment of weakness was all it took to die, not that Takeshi intended to kill her, just lure out that blonde ramen loving guy that lorded over the hidden village they were in at the moment.

The force of the blow also managed to push her back by a few feet. As she skidded and bounced across the ground, Takeshi wrapped her up in his crimson chains, and made them begin to squeeze the life out of her. Slowly at first, but soon enough she was screaming in pain and for him to stop.

When he sensed the approach of Konoha's most powerful shinobi, he magically replaced his mask, covering his face, as well as burying Kushina's memory of what he looked like, deep within her mind, that it would take someone like his own twin brother to dig it back out. While he was the one that preferred physical activities and illusions, his brother was the one that liked mental activities as well as the other forms or branches of magic, specifically charms.

As he felt the Hokage's overpowering, to most of his foes, aura near their position, Takeshi yanked his chains back just in time to save then from the Hokage slicing them to pieces, or trying to. He rewrapped his chains around his arms, as he faced the Hokage, his stance returning to the seemingly relaxed state that his father favored. He was prepared to do battle with the Kage, prepared to do battle and come out in a draw as was stated in the mission scroll which he had remembered to burn.

No words were spoken but his body language did the talking for him, Minato was clearly doing more than simply defending one of his subordinates, his body clearly told Takeshi that his opponent considered Kushina as more than just a subordinate of a friend. It reminded him of his father and mother, before they started this time travelling adventure.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Hokage," Takeshi said mockingly, the mask masking his real voice, "What are you doing here?"

"What is your purpose here?" Minato demanded instead of of answering Takeshi's mocking question.

"My purpose?" Takeshi said, he knew that the blonde was stalling for reinforcements to arrive, "Wouldn't you like to know."

Takeshi wasted no time allowing Minato to feel his aura, to feel the explosive power of a shinobi almost unlike any other.

The Hokage was startled by the sudden pressure of Takeshi's oppresive battle ready aura. He had no clue that his present opponent had such power, such hidden potential. He was surprised that his 'secret love' was able to hold off Takeshi as long as she did.

'_He wanted me to come..but why?_' he thought as he realized that Takeshi could have killed Kushina at any time, and that he was waiting for him to arrive, for what reason the Kage did not know.

"Oh so that's the message!" Takeshi said in excitement as he fully realized what his father wanted him to do, it was a really screwed up game of matchmaker.

"Message?" Minato asked.

"Yes, my purpose is to convey a message from one of the friends of the Uzumaki clan," Takeshi said as he let part of his crimson chains drop to the ground, in preparation for the continuation of the fight.

"I don't get...it," Minato got the message, "Isn't this quite a dangerous way to deliver a message?"

"You'd probably never let your feelings be known," Takeshi said, "If I didn't use this method...but now that I think about it...I don't think you are worthy, therefore, I will not allow you to say the words."

"So...is this part of the...omph!" he said, but was slammed in the gut by one end of Takeshi's chain, when he regained his balance and his breath he continued what he was going to say, "Message?"

"How should I know," Takeshi said, he then vanished from where he had been standing, and appeared in front of Kushina, instead of in front of Minato, and was about to slam his chains down on the woman while would kill her.

Minato used his speed technique to appear in front of her, and managed to push away both the chains and Takeshi, causing him to skid for a few feet, before stopping, and yanking back his chains.

"I won't let you hurt her," Minato said, sounding not as a Hokage, but as a man defending his precious person.

"Really?" Takeshi said appearing behind him and right above Kushina with a kunai, and not one of his chains, in hand, about to plunge it in her side.

Minato reacted instantly, by spinning in place and planting a vicious kick to Takeshi's head as he was upside down, and pushing him away with an aching head.

"Maybe I should get you out of here," he said to Kushina as he kneeled down beisde her, believing that there was no way Takeshi would be getting back up for a while after an attack like that.

"Behind you!" Kushina shouted, even though shouting was rather painful.

Takeshi had managed to move again, and speedily, right after Kushina shouted her warning, he wrapped his chains around the Kage's neck and waist, and pulled him away from his love, hard. The pull was strong enough to snap the man's neck, but Takeshi was rewarded by a puff of smoke indicating a kawarimi, and true to form a shattered log was what had been shattered by the chains.

Takeshi had managed to evade Minato's counter attacks. But it was then and there that Takeshi decided that perhaps he had pushed the Kage's buttons enough and it was time to simply fight the guy. Taijutsu versus taijutsu, his forte thanks to his father's love of it, and legendary status regarding it.

They traded punches and kicks with one another, dodging and evaded some blows, and over all looking like two blurs. By the time that the Konoha Anbu arrived, they were greeted by the sight of multiple yellow flashes and streaks of red, criss crossing the training ground. Every now and then some blood would hit the ground. Takeshi and Minato had decided, just as the Anbu arrived, to begin using their weapons once again, Minato his kunai, and Takeshi his chains.

The Anbu didn't know if they were to interfere with the fight or not, so instead of joining their Kage in the fight, one of them made her way to the downed form of Kushina, who both fighters seemed to be avoiding.

While Minato was busy with his fight, the other Anbu didn't know what to do, Kushina was left at the mercy of the single Anbu that approached her form. It wasn't a regular Anbu from what she could tell, and it wasn't a Ne Anbu either, not that she knew about them.

When the Anbu removed her mask, the face that was revealed was that of no one. The Anbu had no face, the figure suggested a kunoichi, but now when faced with a truly blank face. Kushina didn't know what to think. She also began to feel rather sleepy.

"Be at peace," Kushina heard the Anbu that was not an Anbu whisper, the figure became that of a blank slate, niether male nor female in appearance, as if some physical appearance altering jutsu had been used.

The Anbu then pulled out a syringe containing a colorless liquid. The Anbu tested it to make sure that it would inject the liquid, satisfied with the results, the Anbu injected whatever it was on the sleeping Kushina. But that was all the fake Anbu was able to do before It's head exploded thanks to a Rasengan to the temple. Blood flew everywhere.

Takeshi too had noticed the odd Anbu approach phase one, and thought nothing of it as he was having way too much fun battling the Kiroii Senkou. He had also managed to notice when Minato flashed away to deliver a Rasengan to the Anbu's head. Takeshi had managed to stop himself from moving forward by rewinding himself back a few steps. A space-time bubble covering only himself for a few seconds in order for the rewind to only affect his body.

"Well...I wasn't expecting that..." Takeshi said, wrapping his chains around his arms, like sleeves, again, and reapplying his illusions, the ones that hid his chains, as well as his eye patch.

"How did you get one of your men into my Anbu ranks?" Minato demanded as another Anbu member checked on Kushina to make sure she was alright, and that whatever was injected was not some kind of poison of any kind.

"Hey, I didn't know about the Anbu," Takeshi said defensively, "I was just as surprised as you."

"How can I be sure that you're telling the truth?" Minato said, preparing to reengage Takeshi.

"She's just sleeping, Hokage-sama," the Anbu that was checking on Kushina announced, "My diagnosis has shown nothing out of the ordinary in her vitals."

"Whoa...I thought I really messed her up," Takeshi said dumbfounded, "I mean I beat her up quite thoroughly...guess you just killed someone that was trying to help..."

"Are you done talking?" Minato asked.

"Not really," Takeshi said, "But I am done fighting. My mission is complete, I'm going home now.."

He didn't wait for Minato to acknowledge what he said and simply teleported out of there, just as another fake Anbu appeared beside the Hokage and injected him with the same clear liquid, and was also killed, or more like obliterated by the overly excited or anxious Anbu.

'_Who the hell was that?_' Takeshi wondered in mid-transit to Kiri's main gate.

When he arrived at the gate he was greeted by none other than his father in his kage robes. But seeing as he was still in uniform, he greeted the man by kneeling, head down, and waiting to be acknowledged or told how to proceed.

"Report," Ryoku ordered.

"Mission success," Takeshi reported, he had arrived back at nighttime when only the main gate was open, the guards being Anbu and not Chunin.

"Excellent," Ryoku said, "You may rest, but proceed with your next mission, all preparations must be complete for when I step down."

"Hai, Mizukage-sama," Takeshi said, then vanished from his spot on the ground knowing that he was being dismissed.

With his son away on to his next mission, the mission scroll being left in a special pocket dimension in the timeline of the world, Ryoku himself teleported back to his office, as the paperwork still needed to be finished.

#

The wedding ceremony that joined Toukou Ryoku and Terumi Mei, was an uneventful one, nothing totally out of the ordinary happened. Thre were guests, of noble and royal blood, as well as those that weren't even human.

No one attacked the temple, no one that was not invited had done anything similar to crashing the wedding, or the wedding reception and after party for that matter.

Everything went perfectly the way that Mei and her mother had planned it. All was thanks to Ryoku who had made sure that his alter egos were the security details for all three events. Making sure that no saboteur was able to ruin the happy occassion. There were those that tried, and once again it was orchestrated by Danzo, most of them any way. A fair number of the nins that tried to sneak in or gate crash were Kumo-nin, and there were even a few Iwa and Kusa nin mixed.

"So..where is home?" Mei asked Ryoku when they were finally alone, when they left the party, or rather the village wide celebration, they had retreated to the Mizukage's Office.

"Just a little while longer," Ryoku said as he opened up a portal to his home, his only real home in the world.

A door suddenly popped out of nowhere right in front of where he was standing, and he opened it and beckoned her to enter..

"Ladies first," he said.

"Ok," Mei said and walked through, Ryoku followed her. As he closed the door from the other side the one in his office disappeared just as Kisame, Yagura, and Raiga, entered the office planning on playing a prank of the happy couple. They freaked out when they saw a door in the middle of the room vanish like it was never there.

What Mei found on the otherside was a Ryoku's cabin, the same one he lived in with the first person he named Takeshi. They were somewhere in the mountains of Mori no Kuni.

"Where are we?" Mei asked as she looked around the relatively peaceful looking place, she also admired all the nature around her.

"We are on a mountain somewhere in Mori no Kuni," Ryoku replied, and picked her up bridal style to take her into his home, that they may begin performing the consumation rites of the marriage.

Once inside, he put her down, on the single bed in the cabin. It wasn't messy like when the Rikudou Sennin used to live with Ryoku. The whole place was neat, and clean, there was no evidence that Ryoku had not been there for some time.

"What is this place? Since when have you had it?" she asked him from the bed.

"This is my home in this world," Ryoku said, "I lived here for many years. Kagemusha also lived here with me in the past, back when he was but a child."

"You mean to tell me that this place has lasted for countless years?" she asked astonished and awed.

"Magic can do many things," Ryoku said, "Seals too."

"So..are you going to just stand there all night, or are you going to perform your duty?" she asked, a bit of her imaptience leaking into her voice.

Before removing any of his or her clothing, Ryoku removed his eye patch, Mei was slightly surprised by the action, she didn't know what she would find behind the patch. She was really surprised when she gazed at both of his eyes, the one that stuck to one color and the other one that seemed to cycle through all the colors in existence.

Ryoku calmed his energies, in effect causing his eye to shift slowly, then settled on emerald green.

"So the only reason you hide that eye is because of the way it looks?" she asked him curious.

"Not really," Ryoku said, "The other reason is that it seals away my aura, which you can't feel right now since I am not letting it flare, that and that I am relaxed and comfortable with your presence."

"Oh," she said, not knowing what else she could say or ask.

"Are you just going to sit there, or am I going to have to peel off those clothes off myself?" Ryoku asked teasingly.

"What do you think?" Mei asked him.


	36. Chapter 36

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-six**_

Mei was delighted that she finally found out where her, now, husband lived. She had always wondered why his mail had been left in his office and not his home. There was no mention of his home address in any file or registry or anywhere in the archives of the village. There were only notes and reminders, if he was not in the village and a message needed to be sent to him anyone with a summon would have to send the message, or simply leave it in his office. Only summons retained the memory of the location of Ryoku's home in the mountains of Mori no Kuni.

His home was the most secure out of all the homes of all the Kage's of Kiri, seeing as it wasn't in Kiri. There were two ways of getting there, by magic, and by walking. But there were many safeguards in place, to make sure that nothing happened to the place. That no intruders were allowed entrance. She also found out that Ryoku was a master puppeteer, and that his puppets continued to go about their daily 'lives' even when he was not present to control their actions. There was a literal hidden village of puppets near the land which Ryoku called his own.

She had a difficult time walking around the morning after the the wedding, she was also rather tired, and drifted off to sleep as soon as the sun rose over the horizon, and she only reawoke an hour or so after lunch time. She had lunch with her husband in the puppet village, she was amazed to find that the puppets were like living people, they had an artificial intelligence, their bodies ran on chakra, natural chakra, and converted chakra. The only thing separating them from living humans with souls was that they had no souls, and were still just creations of Ryoku. The only way for them to grow was for their parts to be replaced. The only way for them to add members to their 'families' was either for the puppet making puppet to make a new one, or for Ryoku to make a new one.

They were all programmed somehow using seals, with personalities and knowledge. They were all battle puppets, but looked like civilians. Anyone would underestimate their ability, and by the time their victim realized what was going on, they would be moments away from death's embrace.

The puppets couldn't leave the sanctity of their hidden village, there were seals in place all over to make sure that they stayed within, until their master decided to move them to another location. They were also there as a last defense for something that Ryoku had created alongside them. It was a transparent crystal that leaked or dropped a colorless liquid, one that Ryoku used as a substitute for a number of ingrdients needed in making a kind of dreamless sleep draught of living death potion hybrid. The same undetectable potion which he had his air/wind golems inject into Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. Ryoku hadn't shown Mei the crystal itself, but he did tell her about it.

They were now on their week long honeymoon, the village was aware of it, but what the village wasn't aware of, was that Ryoku would be extending the vacation, he had the power after all. It twas time to put his plan in making his wife a force to be rekoned with into play. And eventually the two boys he knew he would be having with her, as he had already met them, it was rather confusing at first even to him.

Along with sharing with Mei his more or less life story, his life in this world, he also shared his story of when he was on Aetas, and even his life before that with her. She was thrilled with finally getting to know more about his, as he knew everything there was to know about her. She was skeptical about the validity of some of his statements, but then she remembered that he had dived into a bucket of water the day she first met him.

Magic was real, and there were real gods out there. There was also the funny fact, to her at least, that the shinigami had an unnatural fear of Ryoku. Ryoku didn't elaborate on that fact. But it wasn't due to him being one of his alter-egos, or other personalities.

"..So let me get this straight," she said, "You come from another world, one where the possibility of chakra existing is like the possibility of magic existing here, next to nothing..that's kind of hard to believe, I mean what you are implying actually makes you sound crazy."

"Bu..." he was cut off.

"If I hadn't watched you dive into that bucket that first day, I wouldn't have believed you," she said, "But since I'm married to you, all the more that I have to believe you."

"Bu.." he was cut off again.

"And I don't think you're a freak, or weird, or anything like that," she said, "I love you, that's all that matters, and if I did find you weird, well how much weirder am I? I can vomit lava for crying out loud."

"Ye.." he was, you guessed it, cut off again.

"There's also the fact that you can manipulate and even travel through time," she said, "No wonder you love paperwork so much! It gives you something to do!"

"Ano.." he said, but shut his trap as soon as he realized that she still wasn't done talking, ranting more like.

"Someone who has so much time on his hands must get bored easily! Paperwork is the perfect hobby as the papers never seem to end!" she said, she was pacing the living room of the house, it was a house now due to Ryoku having to expand the inside of the thing, it was like him something not to be underestimated, "There's also that henge, its not even a henge is it, its an actual transformation! I can't believe my husband can literally transform into anything he wants to...that reminds me," she turned to face him, her expression neutral, "You haven't transformed into me have you? You haven't done anything perverted like that have you? You know, back when I didn't like you as much as when I started liking you."

"Ah.." he was cut off again.

"I mean I know that you sure know a lot about female anatomy, and mannerisms, and the like," she said, "You didn't transform into me, and perform weird things with your clones that aren't clones, did you?"

"I.." cut off again.

"I mean if you did, tell me now," she said, "I'll kill you sure, or try to at least, but I'll make it quick cause I love you."

"Um.." still got cut off.

"I'm not all that fond of perverts, so if you did do it, and did do something perverted, or something that made my village rep go down," she said, still in full rant mode, "I'll not only castrate you but I'll make sure your ancestors feel it."

"Hey, that's uncall..." he was cut off, but at least he got more words in.

"Well? Why aren't you answering me?" she demaned, her hands on her hips, looking all cute, and hot at the same time since they were still butt naked, "Don't you respect me? I know you love me, but the respect part doesn't always come with the love part."

"I do, but.." what do you think happened.

"Oh my god! What am I hearing!" she said, "You don't respect me? Why? What did I do wrong? Tell me! Do you really love me? Or did you marry me cause you could?"

"I di..." minus one word and a half.

"I can't believe you lied to me! I am stuck in a marriage without love!" she ranted screamed, and wailed, then got to ranting, "I don't feel the love here! Where is the love! You married me for my looks alone didn't you?"

"I didn't," finally a full sentence type answer.

"I can't believe you thought I was just easy! Just some two bit whore that you could simply have at your leisure!" she shouted at him, rant mode still on, "Sure you've got the stamina to please a hundred of me, but to marry me just for that! You really are cheap aren't you, having the ability to make money grow on trees and jewels fall out of your ass!"

"Well, I can do those two things.." he mumbled, then realized what he had just mumbled, and shut himself up.

"I know you can do those two things, but I can't believe you just admitted to marrying me just for the sole purpose of having a pleasure toy!" she ranted some more, he believed she was undergoing some kind of hormonal imbalance or something like that due in part to his multiple use of time manipulation during their honeymoon night, "I can't believe I married you! You of all people! I mean you're older than me! Older than Kiri! Older than Mizu no Kuni! Heck, you're probably older than the Bijuu!"

"Hey, that's.." he was cut off, again, finally.

"You're probably older than the world! Stamina of an army sure, but still, you must have some sort of illusion up at all times, eww!" she was now slightly hysterical.

"Somebody kill me," Ryoku said as he stood up from where he was sitting, and listening to her diatrade.

Mei seemed to be in her own world, her ranting continued as Ryoku simply decided to put some clothes on, on himself and on her. She didn't seem to notice as he slipped her arms into the sleeves of a blue v-neck shirt, and place her legs into the pant legs of some jeans. She didn't seem to notice when he tied her haid into a kind of half-bun half-ponytail. She didn't notice any of the things he did while she was ranting.

"I'm going out," Ryoku said as he walked to the door, "Don't wait up, I may be gone for a few centuries!"

"...And now you're leaving me! The nerve of you! First you embarass me infront of my peers, then you marry me, then you use me, then you leave me? What am I some toy you can simply thorw away!" Mei was still into her rant, "I can't believe I fell in love with a man like you! I wouldn't even wish for any of my enemies to suffer what I have suffered at your hands!...oh...your hands...But that's beside the point!"

"Er...whatever...I'm gonna go get you some hormone and time displacement cures...as well as some normalization potions...and maybe a pregnancy test kit...yea...might be that last one..." Ryoku mumbled the last part, then walked out the door.

"GET BACK IN HERE! I'M NOT THROUGH WITH YOU YET!" Mei shouted when she noticed that Ryoku was no longer in the house with her, she finally noticed something, when she got to the front porch, yes there is one now, she shot great balls of fire in Ryoku's direction.

"Shit!" Ryoku exclaimed as he dove from one side to the other just to avoid the great balls of fire, which for some odd reason looked like meatballs, "Calm down! I'll be back in a while!"

"THERE'S ANOTHER WOMAN ISN'T THERE!" Mei raged as she sent a lava dragon heading his way.

"Of course n.." he was unfortunately unable to finish answering as Mei wasn't in the mood to believe him, which was made very obvious when she sent a lot more elemental dragon jutsu his way forcing him to slip out of time and make a mad dash to the cliff beside the house, and jumping off right after slipping back into time.

"HOW DARE YOU TAKE THE COWARD'S WAY OUT!" Mei shouted as she sent the dragon jutsus that were still active in Ryoku's falling direction, she believed that there was no way that he would be able to dodge in mid-air.

Luckily Ryoku loved flying, and simply brought out his broomstick, mounted it mid-air, and kind of danced around the chakra based dragons while in the air. Mei paid it no mind, and doubled her efforts to kill her husband.

"STAY STILL TEME!" Mei demanded as she spat out acidic water bullets, and a bunch of other elemental jutsu, in an effort to off the immortal.

'_Alexandre Westwurld! Save me!_' Ryoku couldn't help but send out a mental outburst type of message to the only being in existence that he believed could help him.

'_No way! She's nuts! I may not be married, but I doubt even Crius would come to your aid, or Aetas for that matter!_' Alex mentally replied, along with a temporary boost in power to Ryoku so that he would last longer just as he was supposed to, along with the potions Ryoku needed to calm his wife down.

'_He's right you know,_' Aetas entered the mental convesation, '_I ain't gonna help you out, but here's a little boost in power to keep you going! Good luck! You need it!_'

'_How the hell are those going to help me!_' Ryoku asked while maneuvering his broom in and out of the way of the numerous attacks that his wife was sending his way, as well as the metal implements of death that were also sent soaring his way.

'_Voice projection could be a start,_' Alex said in contemplation, while Ryoku continued dodging.

'_Aren't you a Kage! You really shouldn't take shit like this from your wife,_' Aetas advised, '_After she's calmed down, are you simply going to act in such a cowardly way? She may have been wrong that you were commiting suicide by jumping off the cliff, but you are running away from your problems, or problem as the case may be. Stand up to her and fight, when words have no effect, then that means it is __time for actions._'

'_I'd do as Aetas suggests,_' Alex said, no longer in contemplation about the rather pathetic situation that was and had taken place, '_There comes a time when enough is enough. So are you going to keep running, or are you going to confront the problem, and beat some sense into your wife, or what?_'

"Fine," Ryoku said, resigned to what he needed to do, he already had the potions stored in a very safe place.

He unleashed his power, a power which the whole of Mori no Kuni felt, even with the protective barriers and wards placed all over Ryoku's mountain home and hidden village, and that was while his eye patch which he had put back on was still on. He would need to upgrade his eye patch after dealing with his temporarily hormonal and insane wife. He did not waste any time before incinerating his eye patch, and allowing the rest of his power to come to the fore, illuminating the skies and nature around him with his aura, an aura which was more than just visible.

The unleashing of power was not a gradual one but a semi-sudden one, the first wave was felt by an entire counrty, but the second one was felt all the way in Kiri. The chakra sensors and identifiers built into the map of Kiri were able to identify the power signature, even if only a part of it was chakra while the rest was magic, it still registered, and the monitoring staff were shocked to the core of their being that their Kage was somewhere out in the world, hopefully still with his wife, and had unleashed such a tremendous amount of power.

But such reactions were not important to Ryoku who was literally one with the world due to the output of magic and chakra. He was focused on the reaction of his wife. She was the closest human being to the epicenter of the blast zone, and was the reason for his outburst.

With the level and amount of power that he was letting out he was unable to slip out of time to create that new eye patch, as his power would be too much for the realm which connected all times with himself, that was what happened when he moved out of time, he moved out of present time, and moved into all times. With his regular output of power there was no problem with slipping in and out of time, but with the present output it would be dangerous not only to himself, but to the whole world.

His power was semi-out of control, as he did not have the perfect control needed for controlling such power. It was much like the Juubi, but who ever said that the Juubi had control, or even cared for it.

It was an amount which was more useful as an intimidation tactic than anything else. With it he was able to halt his wife from further trying to end him.

With his goal complete, Ryoku grabbed hold of his power, and tried his best to form some semblance of control over it all. Pulling all that he could back into himself, while at the same time floating back to where his wife was gasping for breath by their house. It was a good thing that he hadn't added any form of killing intent or hostility with his power, as that would have caused his wife to have prematurely met with the shinigami, a being that feared Ryoku and the outcome of such a house call was something that Ryoku did not want to think about.

When he finally touched down beside her, he had pulled in most of his power, while his aura may still have been visible, his power could no longer be felt beyond the barriers and wards he had in place to keep others from feeling his power.

"Fuin," he intoned as he touched his left eyelid with a finger. The power boost that Aetas had given him, he used to form a temporary seal to seal up his power. For the seal to be turned on, he would have to keep his eye closed.

With the seal in place, he moved closer to his wife who was still in the process of calming down. He wrapped his arms around her to comfort and calm her. They both sat on the ground, right near the edge of the cliff, one that had seals and spells around it to make sure that no one fell accidentally, save for Ryoku himself as he had a way of not dying from the fall.

Before speaking to his wife, he took out the potions and forced them down her throat. She needed them, no matter how bad they tasted, and these ones had a way of tasting bad for some reason. He could alter the taste, but where would be the fairness in that. Medicine is naturally thought of as being not yummy, therefore he did not change the taste of what he knew tasted rather bad. He knew that they had worked their magic on his wife by a soft golden glow that briefly enveloped her body before dissipating back into normalcy.

"Now that the ill effects of our constant love making have been dealt with, are you willing to listen to me?" Ryoku asked as a whisper.

"Hai," she weakly replied, she was still feeling the effects of Ryoku's massive aura, even though it had been sealed up again.

"Just to clear up a few things, first I have never transformed into you, second I love you, and therefore third there is no other woman, you are the only woman for me," Ryoku stated, "I think that's about the gist of everything I need to say."

"Ok.." she said, "Sorry for my outburst, I don't know what came over me.."

"All is forgiven," Ryoku said, and lifted her up, and carried her back into the house bridal style, "I believe it is about time we ate something other than each other."

He brought her to the kitchen, and placed her on one of the chairs surrounding the table there. Then called up his other forms that they may help him in preparing some food.

"Don't you think you're cooking a little bit too much food? There's only two of us right now," she said as she noticed Ryoku looked to be preparing a meal fit for an army, rather than a married couple.

"Trust me, when I say, you'll need it," Ryoku said, "As after this meal, we'll have to cut short our honeymoon, as I will need you to prepare for the duties of taking up the position of Godaime Mizukage."

"What?" Mei said, "That's so sudden, you're stepping down and you expect me to be ready in a few short days."

"Not exactly," Ryoku said, "I will step down in two to three years, and leave the village in your, by then, capable hands," he said.

"Oh...so why will I need the extra energy? Are you going to make sure that I really get pregnant?" Mei asked, half expecting that he would say yes.

"I don't need to worry about that," Ryoku stated as he placed an initial plate load of food on the table, "Due to our fun, and my...experimenting with my powers, or rather slight inability to fully control my powers while we were having fun in bed...you already are with child, and we will be having twins..."

"What! How can you know that?" Mei asked, both happy and excited, at the same time worried and puzzled.

"I just know, I've already met our children," Ryoku said, "Just as you have, you've even met yourself a few times."

"Met myself..? A few times?" Mei asked, confused, if she had met a double of herself she would have known.

"Yes," Ryoku said, placing plate after plate in front of his wife, noting that she hadn't noticed yet, but she was already on her seventeenth plate load of food, "You go by the name...Kurenai Kei..I believe."

"Impossible! I can't be her, she's too good to be me," Mei said, "And how can I be someone I'm not and how come I have no memories of being her?"

"Oh, that's simple really," Ryoku said, "That's the future you, in your life, you haven't done the things she has. But you will. Just as soon as you finish your last plate for today."

"Wait," Mei said, after giving some things some thought, "You said I'm pregnant now..with twins even. Most kunoichi have to give up their careers to raise a child, how am I supposed to do that and be Kurenai Kei at the same time?"

"You will have what will from this day forward be called an extreme case of delayed pregnancy," Ryoku said.

"Delayed pregnancy? What are you gonna do, put my babies in stasis?" Mei asked, a bit of her motherly instincts kicking in, at a semi-accelerated pace.

"Something like that.." Ryoku said, "But it wont be me doing that exactly...it will be time itself."

"Time..itself..?" she said, confused.

"As you know, I'm the Avatar of Aetas, and therefore the Avatar of Time," Ryoku said, "Time can be viewed as a living entity, and it has already deemed to stop time for your pregnancy, in order for you to become stronger in what would seem like such a short period of time."

"So...how am I going to become Kurenai Kei?" she asked.

"Since you're done eating, I've already prepared your costume aka uniform," Ryoku said, and had Keigo fetch the things, provided by time itself, along with a few seals and spells weaved into it.

"Put these on please," Keigo said holding out the things, as well as holding out a scroll containing her blade, the one nearly identical to her Seven sword, "Take care to dye the blade crimson, and you're all set."

"I'll be sending you a good seven years into the past, after every year is over you will return to me in this time, for a day of rest," Ryoku said, "Though you wont be returning to this place, but will be returning to another home of mine, it will be where you will go home everyday, unless on a mission, throughout the year."

"How exactly am I supposed to meld into society or into the ranks?" she asked him.

"I'll give you an introduction scroll," Ryoku said, "It will make sure that you answer to only the Kage, be it myself or my predecessor, whatever the case may be, as the me of the past will be unaware of this action, but after reading the letter, I will be."

"Anything else, my beloved husband?" she asked, "Will I be able to act as your wife during these seven year or more years?"

"Of course you will," he said, "I will be seeing you everytime you go home, and no it will not be my past self. Byakko is not known as being myself, and therefore you will be seeing me in that form. You are also to avoid two people. Shinku Rensa..and well..just avoid most nobles until I say that it is safe."

"Ok...I think I can do that," she said, "So when do I leave?"

"If you want to, you can leave now," he said.

"Before that," she said, "When will this weird form of training end?"

"Today," Ryoku said, "I'm expecting you to arrive any minute now actually."

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Yeah, Time itself is just holding the future you back so that you can leave without freaking out at seeing the future you," he said, "Its not weird for me since at the moment I am one with all my selves in almost all times."

"Oh...ok...so...since I wont miss you and you wont miss me, I'm not giving you a goodbye kiss," she said, fully dressed in her disguise.

"Fine," he sighed, "See you in seven years!"

"Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" she screamed as a black hole appeared below her feet, and like a cartoon floated for a second before plummeting down into the abyss like portal which landed her in the past in front of the cottage where Byakko Ryoku was wating for her.

Back in the future, another such portal opened up, but this tim, it opened up on the ceiling depositing a fully and obviously pregnant Mei, her belly looking like what a nine month old baby in a belly should look like.

"So..when am I due?" Mei asked, a bit irritated for having to wait so long, even though it was her own fault.

"I don't really know...actually..." he said.

"So..how do we explain us having kids when we've only been married for what everyone else knows as being seven days," she said.

"Well...you can always claim that I knocked you up nine months ago, without my knowing," Ryoku said, "Its believably in the sense that we do spend an awful large amount of time alone together."

"Did you just say awful?" she asked far too sweetly.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way," he said, prepared to conjure the required potions to calm her down in case her top blew.

"I know," she said, then she felt something that was entirely new to her, "Ryoku.."

"Yeah?" he said.

"I think my water just broke," she said.

With that simple announcement, Ryoku exploded into action, handing out orders to himself, he was insane like that.

"Ryuumusha, we need transport," Ryoku said.

Ryuumusha ran out of the house and jumped off the cliff and transformed into his lung dragon form, ready for departure.

"Byakko inform the Hospital," Ryoku said, since it was just another part of himself, mentally or verbally saying something didn't really matter.

Over in Kiri, Byakko who had simply been waiting for the core of the whole of which he was a mere part, bolted up from where he was sitting as soon as Mei told him that her water broke. He raced out of the moderately sized house located rather close to the Mizukage Tower, not that anyone aside from himself and Mei knew that they lived there. He took to the roofs of the village and rushed to the hospital to prepare for the impending arrival of his other selves and his wife.

"Shinobu, Keigo, you're in charge of the new arrivals when they arrive!" Ryoku ordered as he carried Mei out of the house and jumped on Ryuumusha's back, and they proceeded to fly all the way back to Kiri, time travel and all those other shortcuts were things that Ryoku did not want to try while his wife was in such a vulnerable state.

They flew above the clouds, and it would have been quite a sight if it weren't for the fact that Mei could shit the kids out at any moment. Ryoku focused on his wife, while Ryuumusha made sure that he got his wife there in time, as he didn't dare imagine what a birth in mid-flight would be like.

Ryoku and family arrived at the village at around midnight, and there was a team ready and waiting by the emergency room doors, waiting for them. They were, seemingly, unfazed by the arrival of a dragon of all things, with their Kage and his wife riding on it. With them off, and her on a stretcher, Ryuumusha reverted back into armored human form.

"Shall we?" Byakko said.

"Might as well," Ryuumusha said.

"Let's just go," Ryoku said, then his two other forms merged with him, the core of the whole that the other two were mere parts of.

He followed his wife's chakra signature, and ended up outside the delivery room as he was not allowed inside due to him not really having a real clue about deliveries of this kind. A few minutes later, Ryoku was joined in the hallway by his commanders, from Kisame and Mogatari all the way down to Tora, and all the rest of the Seven.

"So.." Yagura said leaning against a wall," How does one go from being married for only a week to waiting here?"

"The official story will be that I knocked her up nine months ago," Ryoku said, "The unofficial and real story is that our wedding night had a mixture of some forces accidentally affecting the conception and development of the fetuses."

"You said, fetuses, as in plural," Yagura said, "You two're having twins?"

"Congratulations! All we need to know now is if they're boys, girls, or both!" Kisame said.

"I already know," Ryoku said, sitting down instead of pacing as he knew everything would be well.

"How are you so calm?" Mogatari asked him from beside him, "You're wife will be going through labor soon, and you're not worried about the possibility of complications to turn up, what with the other forces being at work."

"Ryoku! I'm going to kill you!" Mei's voice suddenly filled the hallway, she had just gone into labor, the intensely painful kind, "If you come near me again, I'm gonna cut IT off! I'll make you wish you'd never been born! You..." she simply continued to curse his existence and shout the things she planned to do to him after the babies were delivered.

"How can you look so calm with everything she's saying!" Kisame asked, Yagura was preparing to make a run for it, due to the occassionaly bouts of Killing Intent that escaped the delivery room.

"From what I've heard, this is normal behavoir," Ryoku said, "I'm lucky she's not like Sakuran...I heard she almost castrated Kagemusha after the birth of their first son."

"Kagemusha?" Tamago asked.

"He meant Rikudou Sennin, and his wife's name was Sakuran," Yagura said.

"Oh," Tamago said.

A few minutes of shouting and killing intent later, the higher ups of Kiri were cowering in fear, while the highest member of the shinobi corps was calmly waiting to be called into the room. Unbeknownst to his companions in the hallway, he had continously been casting protective magics on his person in preparation for meeting his wife.

"Mizukage-sama, you can come in now," a medic-nin exited the delivery room and said, the commanders and Seven members noticed that the medic-nin looked to be favoring one side of his body, and wondered what the hell had happened in the delivery room.

Ryoku walked into the room, while the medic-nin stayed outside, and sat down beside Mogatari.

"I'm never doing that again," the medic-nin said, "Never again..."

"What happened?" Tora asked.

"You may have only heard the screaming and shouting," the med-nin said, "We should have allowed Mizukage-sama into the delivery room..her grip was intense, and when that didn't work...Simply holding her down was insane..."

"So...she actually tried to beat the living out of Mizukage-sama?" Tamago asked.

"Yeah..." the med-nin said, "Luckily, we know how to deal with such things...we promised her after she had sent one of my teammates through a wall that the sooner she gave birth the sooner she could beat the crap out of Mizukage-sama."

"So...you were saving your own skins?" Tamago said.

"Pretty much," the med-nin said, "We were very much concerned with the babies, which was why he had to sedate her, bribe her, and force her to be strapped to the bed."

Inside the delivery room, where Mei was resting, Ryoku was busy pulling his head out of his ass. As soon as he entered the room Mei had formed a very special clone that only women who had just given birth could create, and had it perform the act of shoving Ryoku's head up his own ass. When he had finally been able to extract his head from his ass, he cleaned himself up, and walked up until he was standing beside her. In her arms were the twins, not identical mind you, but twins.

"What will their names be?" a med-nin asked after a while.

"Ryo-kun?" Mei said, prompting Ryoku to name the kids.

"The younger black haird one is to be named Toukou Shiro, while the dark red haird one is to be named Jikoku Takeshi," Ryoku stated, which the med-nin jotted down and left to file the paperwork.

"Why different clan names?" Mei asked while feeding both boys at the same time.

"Takeshi-kun will be the head of the future clan here in Kiri, while Shiro-kun will be my heir in the capital," Ryoku said.

"But why does the elder get to be your heir in the village, while the younger the heir to a country?" she asked, perplexed.

"Takeshi will be in charge of the village I personally founded," Ryoku said, "It is something only the eldest can do, while the running of a country can be done by any one, sort of."

After it was revealed to the village that Ryoku and Mei had children, that there were two princes of Kiri. No one bothered to ask for the official and unofficial stories, they had simply assumed that the couple had just postponed their wedding in light of the many events that were going on at the time, like preparing for the Chunin Exams, and whatever else people could think up, or think of.

Mei was placed on paid leave, and no one doubted that she would be getting back to work as soon as her children allowed her to. The citizens of Kiri also finally found out where in the world their Kage lived in the village.

The Kiri Anbu were also surprised to find out that Kurenai Kei was actually Mei in disguise, how such a secret had been kept for however long that it had been they did not know. It made them wonder just who Shinku Rensa was.

Three years later, Ryoku announced his resignation, and announced that Mei would be his replacement as Mizukage. The people weren't all that surprised with the appointment, they were just surprised that right after that announcement, they had to get used to calling the Yondaime Mizukage another title, that being Mizu Daimyo. Kujira made sure to make a big production out of the annoucement of that little fact.

It was also at that time that Mei experienced another time travel, this time to ten years in the past, their home being another location, and it was time for her two boys to start their own special training. Shiro at the Mizu court, and Takeshi as Shinku Rensa. By the time the two boys returned to the present time of the time line, they were each around seventeen.

They each inherited things from both their parents. They had a quadruple bloodline limit. They could flawlessly perform Boil Release, Lava Release, have some form of control over time but not to the extent of their father, and they had magic flowing in their blood.

One year after their return to the normal and regular timeline, Mizu no Kuni received word that the Yondaime Hokage had sacrificed his life in a successful attempt to defeat the Kyuubi, that had finally awoken from his tranquelizer induced coma. Ryoku knew who had done the awakening, and the reason for the attack, and other such things that were not commonly known.

He had raced to Kiri with Shiro at his heels after hearing the news. Kiri was the only Hidden Village that did not have a jinchuuriki, and Ryoku wanted to make sure it stayed that way. He split the bijuu into pieces for a reason, and that was so that Akatsuki had a harder time collecting the bijuu.

"Daimoy-sama, what are you doing in Kiri?" the chunin at the gate asked as his former Kage appeared in a swirl of mist at the gate, his son arriving a second or two later.

"I'm here to make sure that some people do not act against my orders and wishes," Ryoku said as he waved off the offer of an escort and instantly merged with Byakko who was closer to the Mizukage Tower, where he was sure his wife would be found. His son had the misfortune of not being able to split himself like his father, and therefore had to run across the rooftops, only to be stopped by a passing Anbu, that turned out to be his brother.

"Shiro, where's the fire?" Takeshi asked after stopping his brother.

"Have you heard about the Kyuubi's defeat at the hands of the Yondaime Hokage?" Shiro asked his brother.

"That's why you're here? Where Tou-san?" Takeshi asked his brother noting that his father was not with his younger twin.

"He's probably with Kaa-san already," Shiro said, "Maybe we should get there now."

"Yeah, sure, this is a family matter after all," Takeshi said, and sped off, his brother keeping up.

"By the way, why'd your team send you to intercept me?" Shiro asked his bro.

"Cause I'm the taichou and I knew it was you even before you took to the rooftops," Takeshi said.

"Oh yeah, we're twins after all," Shiro said, and before long they were at in the Mizukage's office, having entered through the window.

"...So there is no need for you to worry, I shall repeat, no one has suggested that the bijuu bits be recalled and we have ourselves a jinchuuriki to counter the possibility of Konoha having one now," Mei told her husband.

"Fine, fine, I'm glad for that, especially considering that Konoha does have a jinchuuriki," Ryoku said.

"What?" Mei shouted, her sons were forced to cover their ears.

"How do you...never mind," Mei said.

"Yeah," Ryoku said smirking, "I'll go meet him in about four years."

"Meet him?" Mei asked.

"Why?" his two sons asked at exactly the same time.

"Well I would love to meet my great great grandson," Ryoku stated.

"Great great grandson? I have one of those?" Mei asked surprised, then turned to her boys, "Which of you did it?"

"Don't look at me," Shiro said, "I've never even been out of the country, save for with you guys."

"Takeshi..you better not be hiding something from me," Mei said, her aura beginning to glow around her.

"I'm not! I swear! I don't even have a girlfriend!" Takeshi said.

"Now, now, Mei-chan, Takeshi is only partially at fault," Ryoku said.

"Kindly elaborate, husband or not, daimyo or not, I will kick your ass from here to Kumo if I don't like your answer, and you can't make me your assistant or whatever anymore," Mei said.

"Takeshi-kun left his eye patch off one time, and accidentally slipped back in time while drunk, and ended up getting one of the nobles of Nami no Kuni pregnant," Ryoku said, "See..his only fault was that he was drunk enough not to remember when he lost his virginity."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this," Mei and her two boys said at the same time, such things just aren't topics that are talked about that openly by family members.

"So..I have a son?" Takeshi asked.

"Had a son...unfortunately," Ryoku said, "He died early on defending his own kid."

"So I have a grandson?" Takeshi asked hopefully, while Mei had an inkling that the answer was negative.

"Sort of..." Ryoku said, "He is..recovering...in a chamber that at the moment not even I can enter, he is there along with his wife."

"No way..." Shiro said before his brother could say anything, "I have a grandnephew..and he's the Kyuubi no jinchuuriki..."

"Yeah..." Ryoku said, "The good thing is that he's family...the bad thing is that we can't petition to gain custody of him..since his dad was the one to seal the kyuubi into his gut."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up," Takeshi said, "My grandson was Hokage?"

"Yeah, your mom's Mizukage, I'm daimyo, what the big deal?" Ryoku asked.

"I'm a freakin Anbu Captain! My grandkid was a Kage!" Takeshi said.

"Its ok brother, I'm just a prince, so are you," Shiro said, attempting to console his twin, and it was not working.

"My grandson was a Kage..." Takeshi repeated.

"Three Kages in the family ain't bad," Mei said.

"Takeshi-kun," Ryoku said, "Its nothing to be ashamed about, if it helps your grandson was about your age when he became Kage..possibly older than you by a few years..hehe.."

"That's not helping," Takeshi said, "I'm in denial...can I come with when you do meet him?"

"Who?" Ryoku asked.

"This Kyuubi no Jinchuuriki," Takeshi said, "And do you even know his name?"

"His official name is Uzumaki Naruto," Ryoku said.

"Hey bro, I got a mission request form all filled out," Shiro said, "All it needs are the what needs to be done, along with Kaa-san's seal of approval."

"Shiro-kun, where are you going with this?" Mei asked, she was sitting behid her desk, while Ryoku sat by the window, and the two boys were on chairs in front of her.

"Security around the kid will be tight, especially considering the circumstances," Shiro said, "Bro can steal all files and documented information pertaining to this kid. Like birth certificates and the like, while leaving the basic necessities type of information and documentation behind, or at least copies of such."

"Sounds like a good idea," Ryoku said.

"A Kiri prince while at the same time a Konoha prince..." Mei said, "Takeshi-kun?"

"I'm willing to do it," Takeshi said.

"Shiro, fill out the rest of the form," Mei ordered her youngest son, "Ryo-kun..from where do I get the payment for this mission?"

"Take it from our dual clan account," Ryoku answered, "It is a family matter after all."

"Hai," Mei said, "Takeshi, fetch your team, Konoha isn't the only village that values teamwork."

"Hai, Kaa-san," he said and left the room through the window in search of his still patrolling team.

"What are the chances of success?" Mei asked her husband while Shiro filled out the rest of the form.

"One hundred percent," Ryoku said, "Its actually the perfect time to plant spies..don't you think, Mizukage-chan."

"Hai, Daimyo-kun," she said.

"You two are probably the only two parents and leaders that can actually call each other those pet names," Shiro said as he finished the form and stamped it with the seal of approval, using his mother's rubber stamp. He was the only one of the twins that could get away with it, being the youngest and the heir of the country.

Moments later Takeshi's team entered the room, but no matter how much stealth they used, Mei knew when they entered, just as the rest of the family in the room.

"Your task is to infiltrate Konoha, while the chaos is still rampant," the Godaime Mizukage said, "You are to retrieve any and all information pertaining to one Uzumaki Naruto..or.."

"Namikaze Naruto as the case may be," Ryoku supplied.

"Yes.." Mei said, "Leave copies of documents that you believe will be missed terribly. Any questions?"

"..."

"None? Good," Mei said, "Leave at your own discretion, but remember, time is of the essence."

"Hai, Mizukage-sama," they all said, then left the office, Takeshi included.

"So..we've heard of the child's father's side," Mei said after Takeshi left the gates a few minutes later, "What of his mother's side?"

"Direct descendant of Uzumaki Shiokaze," he said, "He is the last true Uzumaki, and last true son of Uzu no Kuni, that I am positively aware of."

"So he has the blood of one of your students flowing through his veins," she noted.

"Precisely," he said, "Actually, he has the blood of Kagemusha as well as Seigi Musei."

"How?" she asked.

"A Senju married into the Namikaze clan a long time ago, before you were born actually," Ryoku said, "I'm not sure as to when or who, but Naruto-kun has the blood of the Rikudou Sennin flowing through his veins."

"Did you have anything to do with the circumstances of his birth and the blood flowing through his veins?" Mei asked.

"None, my only involvement, was teaching his ancestors, and being the father of one of his direct ancestors, our son," Ryoku said.

"Good, I thought you were manipulating fate too," she said.

"Worry, not, no matter how hard I've tried, I simply cannot seem to figure out how," Ryoku said.

"I'm going home," Shiro said, "The court will be in a panic when someone realizes we're not home."

"Alright, I'll follow," Ryoku said, and so Shiro activated a portkey which deposited him in his room just as one of the guards barged in to inform him that his father could not be found.

With both their kids gone, Ryoku decided that he and his wife needed to relax a little, and so they further defiled the office. It was a good thing that Ryoku remembered to kick out all the Anbu that were stationed in the office, before he tested his luck, he wondered if it was possible to have another pair of twins.


	37. Chapter 37

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

Note 2: Hadn't noticed before but the shift+8 linebreak doesn't appear, so I replaced it with "*" to denote change of time or location (short distance or time), # still denotes the longer one, and there is a new one "-" to denote change of pov during a segment

Apologies: My apologies for the false update, I realized to late that there were some errors and things that deleted...so I had to revise.

Arc: Konoha Major Arc begins here...

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-seven**_

Infiltrating Konoha had been one of the easiest things that Takeshi's team had ever had to do. It was really chaotic, and it looked like the chaos would last for a few days more. The Kyuubi had apparently been able to reach past the gates of the great village, surprisingly it managed to miss toppling the defensive wall and gate that surrounded the village, but it had managed to destroy a few buildings before it was sealed away into the belly of Takeshi's very own great grandson, not that he looked like a great grandfather.

As the monster was able to breach the village, aside from taking countless lives, it had also managed to scramble the village's early warning or detection system, which consisted of a chakra bubble which surrounded the village, which gave the village security team the ability to track down where and who entered the village, while not being able to provide a name, they would be able to pinpoint the entry point, as well as the possible direction in which the intruders or whoever were headed. Luckily for the Kiri team that safety feature of the village was out.

Takeshi's team was made up of seven members, including himself. The squad's other members were Hoozuki Miyabi, a kunoichi of athletic build, and porcelain white hair and Hyuuga-esque eyes, her distant cousin Koori Kei, who was her twin in all but bust size, as Miyabi was a mere A, while Kei was a B. They both specialized in the use of senbon, specifically the Hyoton kind. Then there were Kurokarasu Gouzu and Meizu, the twin prodigies of the Kurokarasu clan, they specialized in claw and chain weapons, as well as toxins, but had no apparent Kekkai Genkai. The final two members, while family, were not related by blood but by marriage, they were Jinsoku Tsurugi, who had a goatee, a scar through his left eye, and had long black hair, and his wife Jinsoku Hayai who sported shoulder length black hair and had pink eyes.

They were special in that they rarely ever wore their masks, while on duty, and they only did that when ordered to. Their taichou being the spawn of two of the country's leaders had enough power to pull that off.

They had made it into the great tree that was Konohagakure no Sato, and they had a mission to complete. Takeshi gave out his orders in hushed whispers, as they were disguised as panicked and at the same time gossipy civilians of the village, an easy thing to do, as there were many groups like their huddled together around the village.

"Miyabi and Kei, head for the hospital," Takeshi said, and the two women slowly distanced themselve from the huddled group.

"Twins, I leave the Konoha Anbu HQ to you guys, get everything you can get your sticky mitts on," Takeshi said, and the two men ran away and acted like they were on drugs as they tried their hand and beating the living out of an Uchiha in an Anbu uniform.

"What about us?" Tsurugi asked.

"Intel Department is your target," Takeshi said, "Ransack the place, but leave copies of the important stuff, if there are seals or whatever, simply copy the stuff."

"So..we're going a little bit beyond the actual mission directives?" Hayai asked.

"Might as well, we are in here after all," Takeshi said, "Oh, and I'll be taking the Tower."

"Good luck dealing with the Sandaime Hokage then," Tsurugi said, then he and his wife acted like a grieving couple before they beat the living out of a passing Uchiha.

Once again alone in the village hidden in the leaves, Takeshi cast his illusions over himself, and made his way to the to the Hokage Tower. He was sure that Konoha did not have any protections that he could not bypass, but just in case, he did as his father did before trying to calm down his mother while she had her period. He cast as many protection and preservation spells as he could think of on himself.

When he got to the Tower, he noticed that there were not that many Anbu there, but he did sense the presence of the Old Hokage. He snuck into the building and went straight to where the archives would likely be, in the basement. He may not have been his father, but he sure knew how to perform the leaf's kinjutsu known as Kage Bushin no Jutsu, too bad his father had that jutsu among others in scrolls in his Mori no Kuni house.

After getting whatever he thought was important, Takeshi went up the stairs of the Tower, and searched for the Hokage office which he knew the really important stuff was being kept, as his mother and father tended to keep the really important to the village or the country as the case may be, in their offices. Once there, he was tempted to peek into the village's Forbidden Scroll, but then remembered his mission, and so began his search for documents that even simply mentioned his family.

"Point me, grandson's leftovers," Takeshi said holding a kunai in the palm of his hand, it was a spell his father had told him would really be helpful especially when playing hide and seek. It pointed him in the direction of his grandson's picture on the wall that held the pictures of the Hokages. Behind the picture was a safe, and with a quick alohamora, the safe was opened, and Takeshi took out its contents, leaving a hastily scribbled note to the Sandaime.

He did it hastily as he sensed a strong presence moving toward the room he was in, most likely it was the Sandaime Hokage, and it indeed was the so called God of Shinobi. It was a good thing that he still had his illusions in place, the ones that hid his presence. In his arms was something that Takeshi had not been expecting. Uzumaki Naruto was being craddled by the Hokage in his arms.

Takeshi thought that it would be easy to take his great grandson from Konoha after all, but before he could make himself known, the Gama Sennin Jiraiya entered the office. Since he couldn't really act, even with his abilities, he did not think that it would be wise to start a war with such a weakened village, there was also the disapproval his father would be feeling or making him feel if he acted so rashly. So he listened to their conversation instead.

"I wish I knew what to do with him.." Hiruzen said, a sigh wanting to escape, "The people deserve to know about him but at the same time I fear their reaction, as well as that of the council's. Without his father to protect him, I don't really know what will happen to him..I also know you can't look after him, your spy network is far too important to the village for you to abandon it, especially at a time like this.."

"I wish there was something I could do to help," Jiraiya said, "I'm not much of a godfather am I."

"We do what we can, just as what we must," Hiruzen told his student, "When I call for a council meeting, I will push for him to live as normal a life as possible, and not be turned into a weapon as I am sure Danzo would like him to become.."

As soon as Takeshi heard the name of that old warhawk, he couldn't help but allow a growl to escape his lips, as well as the illusions that kept him hidden. It put the two men in the office with him on guard, as if preparing to be attacked by some unknown figure in the shadows.

"It must have been some animal that snuck in here," Hiruzen as he was unable to sense anything out of place, "Do you know of the possibility of Minato having any family..aside from Kushina, may her soul find rest.."

"Minato didn't know...he only vaguely remembered his parents, his father dying to protect him and his mother, while his mother dying to protect him just as they were about to reach Konoha, or so I was told," Jiraiya said..

"I heard that the Daimyo of Nami no Kuni was a Namikaze, is there a possible relation?" Hiruzen asked.

"I've given that some thought in the past, but when last I asked, they denied the possibility," Jiraiya said, "None of that clan was willing to have a blood test performed, and Minato never seemed to really care, as he was far more concerned with Konoha."

"I would rather not leave Naruto-kun's fate to the village council.." Hiruzen said, then sighed, "I guess it cannot be helped."

Takeshi had heard enough, his father would be looking in on the child every now and then, and even planned on meeting the child in three to four years. He moved towards the Hokage, and pulled out a syringe from within his vest, even though he was in full Anbu gear, he would be able to pull his Shinku Rensa uniform out from his own persoanl pocket locker at a moment's notice, almost like his father who could literally pull out a yacht from out of seemingly nowhere. He took a blood sample from the babe, and sent it on its way to his father's hand in Kiri. He then donned his Shinku Rensa costume, minus the mask, then dropped his illusion.

"Yo!" he said loud enough to take away a few years from the not so young occupants of the room.

"Who are you? How'd you get in here?" Jiraiya demanded, but could only do that much as Takeshi was far to close to the Kage.

"Me? I'm Jikoku Takeshi, a.k.a. Shinku Rensa," he introduced himself complete with bow, "I couldn't help but overhear that you were looking for family of that gaki."

"You're from Kiri!" the Gama Sennin said, "What are your intentions here?"

"Whoa..no wonder my grandson was so chatty when I attacked his crush.." Takeshi said, adopting his father's annoying relaxed stance, this time leaning against the Hokage's desk.

"Grandson? You don't look old enough to have a grandson," Jiraiya said.

"Yeah, well blame it on one of my Kekkai Genkais..also your one to talk, your own teammate looks to be in her twenties," Takeshi said, "I'm related to the gake, you can perform a blood test..I guess..though it would only show that we're related, but not the relationship."

"What proof do you have that you are indeed related to the gaki?" Hiruzen asked.

"Let's see...how did Tou-sama tell it..." Takeshi thought to himself out loud, "Tou-sama said that I was drunk and accidentally got one of the Nami Daimyo's family members pregnant...the kid was my kid obviously, but he had to leave sometime when he was an adult, and travelled to Konoha, but died, and left his kid, my grandkid, an orphan...that kid being the blonde dude who's picture is on the wall...hehe.."

"That story doesn't prove anything," Hiruzen said.

"Hmm..." Takeshi said, then got an idea, one that he hoped he wouldn't be dumped into a tea cup for, "How 'bout you summon your summons, any of them will do..they could vouch for me."

"How does that help you?" Jiraiya asked, "I've read all the names on the contract with the Gama clan, your name's not on it."

"Oh just do it and you'll see," Takeshi said, then he felt something vibrating in his pocket, "Hold that thought.._Use the portkeys, and pray my parents don't kill me when I get back..._'

'_What did you do this time, taichou?_' Hayai asked.

'_Well...I'm with the Hokage, a Sennin, and the gaki.._' he said.

'_We'll pray for your safe...return...we'll even make sure that you stay our taichou,_' Tsurugi said as he took charge of the squad and used the portkey to get out of there.

"So?" Takeshi said, acting as if he hadn't spaced out for a few moments.

"What did you do?" Hiruzen asked him.

"Contacted my team, they wanted to know where I was..hehe.." Takeshi said, scratching the back of his neck, a trait which Minato himself exhibited when he was slightly embarassed about something, then he mumbled, "Kaa-san is gonna kill me.."

"We heard that," Jiraiya said, "Are you sure you're old enough to be this gaki's great grandfather?"

"Oh just summon your summons," Takeshi said, sitting on the Hokage's desk swinging his legs.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Jiraiya called out as he slammed a hand on the floor, a puff of smoke later, sitting on his shoulders were the two Toad Elders.

"Why did you summon us, Jiraiya-chan?" Shima asked.

"That gaki asked for you, saying that you could vouch for him," he pointed at Takeshi.

The reaction of the two toads was instantanous, they were at first shocked into silence, then the hopped off of Jiraiya's shoulders and bowed before Takeshi, before greeting him.

"Jikoku-sama, how may the Gama clan be of service," Fukasaku said, still bowing in respect to the Kiri-nin.

"I just need one of you to pop on over to Tou-sama, and get me a copy of one of those heritage papers of his..I need to verify my claim as kin to Naruto-kun and Minato-kun," Takeshi said.

"At once," Fukasaku said and poofed away, only to return a few minutes later, with the paper in hand, "Your mother is prepared to suspend you from duty for a month, while your father approves of your actions, but told me not to tell you that."

"Stop bowing already, and thanks for the heads up," Takeshi said, then brought out the syringe and dropped some of the blood on the paper, and placed it on the table he had been sitting on.

"Um..what does that paper do?" Jiraiya asked Fukasaku.

"It lists down all names of a person's ancestors, tracing all connections via blood," Fukasaku said, "I'm not all that familiar with how the papers work, but this one is special in that it will name all the famous people in the bloodline, historically or bingo book famous individuals, and their spouses."

"That's right, and as you can see, I'm on the list, among a few other names," Takeshi said, and showed the two men the paper.

"So it is," Jiraiya said.

"Even though you are the closest family he has, I cannot allow you to take him out of the village, he is after all a prince of Konoha, whether or not the people will treat him as such is a different matter all together," Hiruzen said, "The council would not allow for him to be given to another village on the basis of family."

"I am well aware of that," Takeshi said, "But what I wasn't aware of was that two of your Sannin were traitors."

"What do you mean, and who are you claiming to be the other one?" Hiruzen demanded, friendly wise.

"Senju Tsunade's name is written on the paper, as a blood relative, but not an ancestor," Takeshi said, and pointed it out, "She is married to Asano Todoh of Kiri, a highly respected jounin."

"Jiraiya..did you know of this?" Hiruzen asked, his clone was tending to Naruto.

"No..I had no idea, I thought she was still clinging onto Dan and Nawaki's deaths..looks like she lied when she said she couldn't stand the village," Jiraiya said, "Do you know when they were married?"

"A year after the First Chunin Exam," Takeshi said recalling the information, he had never actually met the woman, but knew that she could be spotted in the village at least once a month, or so his father led him to believe.

"So..he's a bastard heir of two daimyo lines, and heir of two kage lines.." Hiruzen said, "I still cannot let you gain custody over him."

"I know," Takeshi said, "How about you just make sure he is treated right, if not, well..you can be sure that Kiri will wage war on Hi no Kuni, we still have a score to settle with Danzo after all, him and his ancestors."

"Normally we wouldn't allow you to leave, but I have a feeling that no matter what we do, you will be able to get home safe and sound," Hiruzen said, "Is there anything else we should know?"

"Make sure no one finds out about that paper, I'm leaving it in your care, and also, my father will be visiting in three to four years time to check up on the gaki," Takeshi said, before taking out a kunai and vanishing from the room as if he had never been there, like a ghost, a small trick he learned from his father's ghostly guise.

Arriving back in his mother's office, he was literally slapped with an order of suspension for a month, and kicked out of the office, followed by his brother who knew that his twin would do something like that. His father left his mother in peace, and went out in search for his two sons, to make sure they were alright and congratulate them on a job well done, before taking his mini-me back to the capital. Shiro had returned from the capital after announcing that everything was alright.


	38. Chapter 38

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

Arc: Pre-Genin Minor Arc

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-eight**_

The first year of the nine tails' imprisonment was hell for Ryoku and family, as none of them were really able to keep tabs on the boy. While it may be easy for him to cross countries or even continent with but a thought, he was simply too swamped with work concerning his country to be able to even spare a second for the boy. All his having fun, gallavanting, and who knows what else he did before that day, had finally decided that he needed some karma, something to occupy his time, give him a hard time. He even had so little time to spend with his own family, only seeing them during meetings and when the work day was done whenever that was. He brought his work home with him, as did the rest of his family.

Mei, being Mizukage, had a lot on her plate, who knew that running a village could get so bad. It was not all fun and games as Ryoku had made it out to be, there were some serious issues that she had to deal with. There was always something that had to be done, and unlike her husband, she could not simply do as he did with his paperwork. She couldn't enjoy the stacks upon stacks, piles upon piles, that made up part of her office's decoration. From reports to mission requests, to civil disputes, there was just so much that needed o be done, and there wasn't enough time in a single day for anyone to accomplish it all. Ryoku only managed due to his uniqueness and actual love for the work, but she was sure he was regretting his decision to like paperwork.

Takeshi had been promoted to Anbu Commander in rank, making him boss to all Anbu, Ootori Meizu decided that if he could infiltrate Konoha and survive a meeting with the Hokage and one of his students in their home turf, then the young man deserved the rank. Meizu also wanted to retire from the hellish paperwork, he was not that old, but the paperwork of such a high position was just too much even for a veteran. Takeshi being in charge of the entire Anbu was given less free time, Meizu had only managed to goof off due to the Yondaime being such a goof himself. With his very own mother being his only superior, well he had to take his work seriously, just as she did hers. Just like his father he could travel to Konoha easily, he now would need to go through a lot of paperwork to even get someone else to take over for him while he was away. Not just anyone could fill in for him. He couldn't even order and of his Anbu to watch over the kid as that would be considered as tresspassing and could cause more problems than help.

Shiro was probably the only one in the family that could have looked in on the kid. But he would have to go through a lot of protocols and processes before he would even be allowed into Konoha. The court, and two countries would make it such a big event, and everyone concerned did not want any unwanted attention to be focused on the kid, the reason why Shiro wanted to leave in the first place. While he may have his father's talents, he would still be missed as he now had to play a more active role in the running of the country. Visiting places within Mizu no Kuni were accepted as normal, but for anything to do beyond the borders of water, the whole country would make a fuss over it.

"Why can't I just...you know...go there? You could make a golem take my place for a few hours to maybe a day," Shiro asked his father one day, all the family knew about the latest addition was that he was alive, that was all Ryoku managed to find out in a single moment of freedom from work.

"I could, but there would be some people that would realize that it was a stand in for you," Ryoku said, "I may have power, and a helluva lotta luck, but even I'm not perfect. I can't simply create a perfect copy of you, and I don't think you're capable of actually creating solid long lasting clones."

"I'm not...but seriously, someone's gotta check in on the kid," Shiro insisted, "Can't you hire some kiri-nin to do the job covertly? I mean, I would, but well..."

"I'll try and think of something," Ryoku said, "I've been trying to do that for some time now, but work is always present, and needs to be prioritized."

"I know...I mean, even I who have not that much to do, still has a lot compared to some of the actual court officials," Shiro said, he was actually at that moment helping lessen the load of his father's work.

Before their conversation could be continued, a soldier barged into the office holding in his hand a scroll.

"Urgent news Daimyo-sama," the soldier said bowing, then handed over the scroll, "It just came in a few minutes ago, I rushed here immediately."

Ryoku unrolled the scroll and found a coded message within, it looked like dots and lines, but it was a code, morse code to be exact, but drawn in such a way that the dots and lines looked like optical illusion type pictures at the same time. It was a report from one of the border partols whose route was near the Kumo coast.

"Damn it," Ryoku said as he burnt the scroll to a crisp.

"What is it Otou-sama?" Shiro asked.

"It must be a set up..." Ryoku mumbled to himself, "How the hell could this happen..."

"What happened tou-sama?" Shiro asked once again.

"Shiro, I need you to do something which your mother might kill me for," Ryoku said, "Use it to your advantage, this is both the best and worst news I could have received at such a time as this."

"Ok...what do I have to do?" Shiro asked, a little freaked out.

"Since I can't abandon my work, I'm leaving you to take care of a Kumo infiltration team, one of our border patrols caught sight of them, but being regular soldiers they were unable to engage the intruders," Ryoku said then turned his attention to the soldier still in the room awaiting for further orders, "Good job, I want you to make sure that what you have heard in here stays between us, understand?"

"Hai!" the soldier said.

"Dismissed," Ryoku said, and the soldier left the father-son pair alone.

"So...I'm to get rid of these infiltrators?" Shiro asked.

"Yes," Ryoku said, "Normally I would take care of them, but I'm simply swamped, and you wanted a reason to get out of the country. So, dispatch these tresspassers and do your duty to your family."

"Before I do leave, how many will I be facing?" Shiro asked.

"Fifty shinobi, and one kunoichi," Ryoku said.

"One kunoichi?" Shiro asked, "What can you tell me about he kunoichi?"

"Living weapon," Ryoku stated, "They're target is most likely Kiri, and I don't think our friends would appreciate having to deal with one of those. Out of all of them, make sure that at the very least, she is taken out of the picture."

"So...on a scale of one to ten, how much of a threat should she be to me?" Shiro asked.

"She'd be a two," Ryoku said.

"Two? She's a living weapon and she's a two?" Shiro said bewildered why she had been given such a rating.

"Two tails," Ryoku clarified.

"Oh...better than eight then..." Shiro said, understanding just how dangerous his position of Prince was, not that any of his predecessors of such a position in society had ever been forced to undertake the kind of training that he had, or was treated just as much as soldier as the regular army men, and Kiri-nin.

"Of course its better than eight," Ryoku said, "But you must remember that the cat should be flung back to Kumo. I simply do not have the time to deal with a bijuu at the moment."

"I understand tou-sama," Shiro said, bowed and prepared to leave, but was stopped by his father.

"If you do find your way to the leaf...make sure no one recognizes you for who and what you are," Ryoku said, "I will also be expecting a detailed report of your experience submitted to both myself and your mother once you get back."

"Hai," Shiro said, unwrapped his bandages and vanished from the room with a nearly inaudible pop.

Shiro reappeared right smack dab in the middle of the Kumo-nin camp that were camping near the borders of Kirigakure itself. They had moved that fast it seemed. How they had managed it without being detected by the Anbu patrols in the area, Shiro didn't know, while he did want to find out, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

The group had been spotted by a Mizu patrol, but that was it, it was possible that his father hadn't told him everything. Like the possibility that the soldiers had been made to send the report after a certain amount of time had passed via genjutsu. His father had a tendency to leave out such unimportant details. The bit about the jinchuuriki being amongst the group had simply been for him to have an easier time locating the group. His apparating skills were guided by his imagination and his wishes. He knew what a jinchuuriki was and knew what the kunoichi contained, so right before he initiated his transportation spell, he imagined the two tailed bakeneko. He found her alright, along with the rest of the group.

He actually appeared impressively amongst them just as they were making their last minute plans on how to pass through the mists undetected. They seemed to have found a way around the many things that Ryoku had done to keep his village safe. But not by much, as there wer things that were kept extremely secret.

"Whoa...this has never happened before," Shiro said, standing in the middle of the camp, he really didn't care if the Kumo-nin thought he was insane, "I thought you guys were still somewhere near the coast, looks like you managed to catch one of the patrols in a genjutsu, huh."

"We did," the apparent leader of the group decided to humor Shiro, whom he believed would not be able to tell anyone what he found, "Truly pathetic for a patrol."

"I guess...guess thinking that Kumo wouldn't have the balls to sneak into Mizu no Kuni again was a bit complacent of us, huh?" Shiro said, nonchalantly.

"So who do we, humble Kumo-nin, owe the pleasure of terminating this night," the Kumo leader asked, it was midnight.

"If you wish to know my name, why not introduce yourself first?" Shiro said.

"Fine, I am Nezumiiro Haiiro, Jounin of Kumogakure no Sato," the Kumo leader introduced himself, "And just so you know, I didn't get that rank due to some kekkai genkai."

"Very well, nice to meet you Nezumiiro-san," Shiro said, "I am Toukou Shiro, Mizu no Ouji, and I didn't get that rank due to some kekkai genkai too."

"Mizu no Ouji?" Haiiro asked, flabbergastered, never in a million years did he think he would get to meet with a prince of any nation, and have to kill one, it was his lucky day, but at the same time, if they kept him alive, there would be so many political schemes that could be undertaken, "You picked a fine place to be tonight. If you surrender, I promise that you'll get to see your family again."

"How about you surrender, and I'll kill you as quick and painless as I can," Shiro suggested.

"Well, if you're sure that that's how you want this done," Haiiro said, "I guess there's nothing more that can be done. Diplomacy seems to be dead even to a noble of the highest court. Kill him."

Shiro had already entered his father's relaxed battle stance, a stance that any taijutsu master would be able to recognize. But sadly there were none of those in the group from Kumo. There were fifty of them in the group, not counting the jinchuuriki. Twenty five of them decided to attack at once, five with jutsu and the rest with a mixture of the other two disciplines.

The only light that shone that night were those from the stars, it was a new moon, and therefore Shiro's left eye was pitch black in color, absorbing light rather than reflecting it. His powers fluctuated, just as his left eye's color depended on the moon's phase, so did his powers. During a new moon his left eye was blacker than pitch black, and his magics were at an all time low, his chakra however was at an all time high.

Shiro and his brother both had eye patches that matched their father's, but using them was a whole other story. Both brothers preferred to use their own means of sealing away and in some way controlling their powers. Takeshi had his mask, and Shiro had his bandages. But they both made sure to keep their eye patches on their person at all times just in case.

With Shiro's bandages off, he was easily S-class, even though he was not an official shinobi, samurai, or mercenary, for that matter. He needed all the magic he could get a hold off, and he needed all the chakra he had at his disposal for what he deemed as being one of the most dangerous and suicidal things his father had ever had him do in his entire life.

As soon as the first Kumo-nin was an inch away from him, he grabbed onto the man's arm and sent electricity up and down the arm, frying the man's arm in the process. He followed that up with a senbon in the eye, lodged in so deep that it allowed the electricity from the arm to latch on and fry the brain as well. The action took only one second to accomplish, with that done, he moved on to the next Kumo-nin, and the next, and the next. He decimated the group within the span of only slightly more than a minute, leaving only the Jinchuuriki as the only remaining Kumo-nin in the area.

He and his twin named their fighting styles after their father's alter egos. From Tatsujin to Byakko, as each part of the whole that was Ryoku had their own personality and style. The twins had been trained in each, and used each along with their own self conceived styles. For this short battle Shiro used Tatsujin and Shinobu styles of fighting, using taijutsu close range, and some form of ninjutsu to get close enough to use taijutsu. Now that he was faced with the living weapon of Kumo, he didn't know which style to use, so he settled on simply doing whatever it took to take his opponent down.

She knew the mission by heart, infiltrate and destroy Kiri once and for all, then get back to Kumo. Nothing was to stand in her way, anything that did was to be eradicated. She knew her mission, and she was not only prepared to do it, but she would enjoy doing it. It was her duty, her responsibility, it was her fault that her fellow Kumo-nin were slaughtered, she had not acted. But the mission stated that so long as the Kumo-shinobi were still alive she was to take orders from them and not interfere, it was only when she was the last one remaining that she was allowed to act on her own, so long as she finished and completed the mission.

The first thing she did was cover herself in the blue cloak that was the chakra of her trapped bijuu, the second thing she did was rush Shiro who was simply standing in place, in the same relaxed stance that he had taken up at the start of the first fight. She knew not to underestimate such an opponent, but believed that she had the upper hand being a jinchuuriki and all, the only ones capable of taking her down were seal masters, kage level shinobi, and a more powerful jinchuuriki, which clearly her opponent was none of those.

She was sadly mistaken.

As soon as she hit him, or was close enough to, he simply took a big side step, her momentum disallowing her from changing directions to slam into him as she had intended, her chakra flame covered form would burn him to a crisp.

When she finally stopped, she turned to face him and he found out that all bijuu were able to launch a highly concentrated beam of energy that could level a city in seconds. Seeing as his magic was only good for minor illusions and transportation or teleportation, he apparated out of the beam's path. It kept the nibi-fied kunoichi in place, and allowed Shiro to get the hell outta the blast zone. It wasn't that big, and she seemed to know what she was doing. The beam was only big enough to kill him and level part of their surroundings, but not big and bright enough for Kiri Anbu patrols to find them.

Shiro knew that senbom, his favorite weapon, was out of the question in this fight, and since he was not Keigo Ryoku, he could not pull out some random item out of his ass. He now had to rely solely on ninjutsu, one of his weaker points, as he wasn't all that fond of such things, but he was still competent enough in the art to win the fight.

The nibi-fied kunoichi was more of a fire and shadow type of opponent, and well Shiro was all and more...more only when the moon was in any other phase than new moon. When he noticed that the cat was readying some kind of elemental attack, Shiro prepared his own to counter whatever the hellcat was going to throw at him. They were both far from each other, and therefore the attacks had better be powerful.

Shiro dared not go near to the blasted thing as he was unsure of all the thing's capabilities, as well as arsenal of jutsu and abilities. He was not his father that could simply slip into his opponents mind and divine all of his or her secrets.

Their attacks were not announced as some others liked to do, they simply let loose their ninjutsu and didn't bother checking if they had managed to hit or properly anticipate their opponent's attack. They flew through another set of motions, then launched another attack, a cycle which continued, until finally Shiro managed to get into position to peform the one thing that could send him possibly into the hall of the dead or the office of the shinigami.

Their attacks, all of them until this point, were nearly identical, Katon and Raiton jutsu had been flung at one another, effectively canceling each other out. But this last one was something that only Ryoku and family could perform, it was a kinjutsu in itself, but was more often than not refered to as a Hijutsu.

"Hijutsu," Shiro, standing five meters behind his opponent, he pointed at the woman's back, whispered, "Avada Kedavra."

Most of his magic, and a considerable amount of his chakra escaped the confines of his body and exited through his pointed finger in a blast of sick emerald green. The kunoichi was unable to dodge it, and it killed her as soon as it touched her skin. The bijuu within desperately tried to revive its host body, not thinking that it was weakening itself as it was about to be set free. When it finally gave up, it was forcibly ejected into the land outside of the seal that had kept it locked up inside the kunoichi. It was free.

"**I'm free!**" the nibi announced with joy as it realized that it was not trapped within the confines of some seal.

"Not for long," Shiro said, barely able to stand flashed through a number of handseals then slammed his palms on the ground, announced, "Youton: Youryuu no Jutsu!"

The his remaining chakra was quick to answer his call, it seeped into the earth and quickly formed lava, which in turn quickly turned into a dragon head, then a body, and a tail, as it emerged from out of the ground and slammed into the bijuu with all of its might, managing to actually propell the thing all the way to Kumo thanks to it weakening itself when it tried to revive the dead. Had it been in the good graces of the shinigami its efforts might have had a chance in working. Unfortunately the shinigami wasn't on its side.

"_**Alright...where the fuck do you want to go?**_" the shinigami asked Shiro as he appeared within the kami's office in the afterlife.

"If you could send me to Konoha, I would really be grateful," Shiro said.

"_**I can do that...though I would just like to tell you that you'll be a whole lotta pain and suffering when you get there,**_" the shinigami said.

"Why's that? Can't you heal me or something?" Shiro asked, not really expecting a positive answer.

"_**I could, but it wasn't my fault you ended up in my office in the first place, be glad that I'm even offering you a free ride,**_" the Shinigami replied.

The next thing Shiro knew was that he found himself in real pain and was in a dumpster in one of the less visited parts of Konoha...three years later.

'_I have a feeling that I'm not when I'm supposed to be..._' Shiro mentally said.

'_**Next time kindly take into consideration that you have a Kekkai Genkai that manipulates time, and make sure it is sealed up before attempting to take a ride with someone that actually uses the timestream to get from point A to point B,**_' the Shinigami said in response to Shiro's thoughts, '_**And just so you know, your father has been covering for you since you disappeared, he managed to convince Mizu no Kuni that you were on some pilgrimage or something like that...though most believe that you decided to go on an extended vacation which became an adventure...you mother also wishes to kick your ass from Water to Demon Country.**_'

'_Uh...thanks for the heads up..._' Shiro mentally replied, then when he received no more words from the death god, he decided to see if he could get himself from out of the dumpster he found himself in.

What he found upon getting his ass out of the dumpster was a little blue eyed and blonde haired child that was about to go dumpster diving himself.

"Ahh!" the child shouted as he saw Shiro get out of the dumpster, he actually looked like he had been in there since Naruto's first birthday. It was not a pretty sight, and actually made him look like an actual monster. He had aged and grown appropriately.

"Well, well, well," Shiro said, his voice not as hoarse as he expected it to be, he used what little magic was available to him to numb the pain he should have been feeling, it was still a new moon, but at least his reserves both chakra and magic were refilling themselves, "I wasn't expecting to run into you so quickly."

Normally such a statement would be thought of as slightly normal in this part of the village by one stret urchin known as Uzumaki Naruto. But coming from a guy that looked worse than a rotting corpse complete with maggots and a number of other unhygenic things covering him, made it sound like something out of a horror flick. To Naruto, it sounded like Shiro was planning on eating him. Beatings he could take, starvation sure, but monsters trying to eat him. There was no way that he was going to let something like that happen. So he did the only thing his immature mind could think of and allow him to do.

He fainted.

"Well shit," Shiro stated.


	39. Chapter 39

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter thirty-nine**_

'_What to do...what to do...the gaki fainted on me after all...what to do...what to do..._' Shiro mentally assessed the situation he found himself in..

'_Since you are already there, and I have managed to quell the wrath of your mother and the curiosity of the rest of Mizu no Kuni, I'm leaving you in charge of our great grandnephew. Screw up and you will have your brother to deal with, is that understood,_' Ryoku replied to his son's mental ramblings.

'_H-Hai!_' Shiro replied and the mental link was cut, leaving Shiro once again alone with his thoughts.

After mentally debating, and occasionally verbally talking to himself like a mad man, he decided that he might as well meet with the Hokage, to make his living arrangement as legal as possible even with the circumstances, as well as get the Kage's side of the story rather than simply decide that the village of Konoha was rotten to the core and that Mizu no Kuni and the world would be better off without the Shimura clan and the rest of their own 'precious' people.

He picked up his relative and simply walked his way to the Hokage. To any passing or watching villager, they would think that he was the one successful assassin to take out the demon child as he was lovingly referred to as. While a few others were preparing to take him out, due to the sheer audacity of him simply carrying the child, slung over his shoulder like a trophy, and obviously heading in the direction of the Hokage Tower. The only reason why no one bothered to stop him was that he kind of looked like one of the village elders, a man whom he peronally loathed.

When he finally made it to the Hokage Tower, he was ushered into the office of the Hokage, how he knew the Hokage was there was due to the rumors that were surely spreading across the village as he walked. The sight that met him was a squad of Anbu ready to take him out at a moment's notice as well as Hokage that didn't look all that friendly.

"Um...I can explain," Shiro said as he placed the young lad on the sole couch in the whole room.

"Explain," the Sandaime said.

"I woke up in a dumpster after an accident and found the kid, and he kind of fainted on me, and..." Shiro said, "Well, your citizens are such gossips, none of them bothered to look underneath the underneath. I could be a spy or an assassin sent to kill you, and the kid sleeping there could simply be a bushin or something henge'd to look like the kid. Security here sure sucks when it concerns my great grand nephew. Now, will I be informing the rest of the Mizu Royal Family that Konohagakure is a fraud, and really should have been wiped off of the face of the world for the multiple actions of Shimura Danzo and his ancestors or will you be giving me the information I deserve?"

"Who are you to threaten me with such things?" the Sandaime demanded, Konoha was his village, and if someone threatened him and at the same time demanded something of him, then that person either really had what it took to back his threat, or he was an idiot.

"I am Toukou Shiro, Mizu no Ouji, great grand uncle of Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto," Shiro stated, while he may have looked worse than a rotting corpse, the confidence oozed off of him, as well as some of the bridled power he held within him.

"I believe you," the Sandaime said, then spoke to the Anbu, "None of what has been said in here is to be spoken to to anyone without my or his express permission, along with Naruto's. Any that violate this direct order will not only be killed, but so will his or her family if at all any. This is a double S-class secret. Dismissed."

With the Anbu out of the office, the Sandaime could speak a little more freely.

"I had been expecting a visit from your father or your brother at the very least," the Sandaime said, "I was not expecting to meet you and in such a state."

"As I said, I had an accident, jutsu and battle related," Shiro said, "I was dumped into the dumpster, and more or less have been in there ever since the accident...sort of...Now are you going to explain to me why Naruto-kun was dumpster diving or am I going to have to bother my father?"

"No need to do that," the Sandaime said, "I guess, I haven't been able to keep most of my side of the bargain, I'm Hokage and have been unable to look after Naruto full time...he was recently kicked out of the orphanage that I left him in. There he was cared for, but given only the minimum that was expected of his caretakers. The village council played a big part in his removal from that place. I have given him an apartment to live in, as well as an allowance to live off of. I have also assigned an Anbu squad to monitor him and intervene when necessary, though now that I think about it, some heads will be rolling after our meeting. I have watched him as best as I could given the circumstances..."

"Then release him into my care, I understand the hardships of being a leader from watching my parents do their jobs in recent memory," Shiro said, "While you haven't kept your side of the deal, my father has instructed me to care for my youngest relative. I am well aware of the fact that I would not be able to take him with me back to Mizu, I will be staying here, until such a time that I am summoned back to the Mizu court, which is not likely to be anytime soon."

"In that case...I guess I can do that," the Sandaime said, "Since you are Mizu no Ouji, you can call me Hiruzen, you deserve as much...I will fill out the necessary documents immediately and have them filed and made offical by tomorrow."

"If your village council asks, tell them that you have entrusted Naruto to family, and that you are well aware of his full heritage," Shiro said, "But kindly remember not to mention the extent of that heritage."

"I will remember that," Hiruzen said, "What name would you want to go by as a dual-citizen of Konoha?"

"I'd gladly honor the Uzumaki by taking their name as my own for the meantime," Shiro said.

"Alright," Hiruzen said, "Come back here tomorrow, with Naruto so that I can hand over all the necessary documents and the like that you will need as a citizen of Konoha."

"*"

Hiruzen had gladly personally led Shiro to Naruto's appartment, but before leaving Shiro requested that a portfolio of all available tracks of land on the outskirts of the village be prepared for their next meeting as the man decided that such a crappy apartment would not do for a son of a Hokage, and descendant of two Mizukages and one Daimyo, as well as an Anbu Commander.

When he Hokage finally left Shiro alone with his new and only charge, the man brought the boy to the bedroom and lay him on the bed, the boy hadn't bothered waking from his faint and simply drifted off to sleep. It was glaringly obviously how tired the boy was, as well as how malnourished he was too.

Shiro then went to the bathroom to get himself cleaned up, by first cutting some of his hair, but leaving it at a length that his mop wouldn't get all messy and next to impossible to tame. He also took a bath, and shaved what needed shaving. He also took some time to conjure some more bandanges as he needed to get his look back to what it was. He may have had some bandages on, but they were dumpster dirty, he replaced them. His clothes also needed changing, but for now a quick cleaning spell would have to do. With cleaning himself up done, he positioned himself on a chair next to the bed and dozed off, while his magic, as little as it was, compared to most wizards was still alot, escaped him and formed protective wards all around the apartment as a subconscious precautionary measure.

When morning came Uzumaki Naruto found himself with an unfamiliar sight and situation, while he had had experiences of the Sandaime Hokage sitting on a chair beside him bed on some rare occassions, he had never had the privilage of having someone that wasn't threatening his life in any way, simply sleeping while sitting on a chair beside his bed. It was unheard of in his short life. Coupled with the unfamiliarity as well as not knowing who the man was, he did the first thing that came to mind.

He screamed.

It was a scream which woke up only Shiro, due to the wards and barriers put in place like silencing wards, there was also the fact that Shiro was a very light sleeper, he slept fully aware of his surroundings. Once up and about he simply waved a hand and Naruto literally lost his voice.

"Good moring Naruto-kun," Shiro greeted his new charge, "As of sometime after breakfast, I will be your new guardian," he then noticed the uncertainty clearly plastered on the child's face, "Guardian, a caretaker of sorts. I've already cleared it with Hiruzen, we just have to have some papers finalized and you will legally be under my care and protection."

"Huh?" Naruto said, not really fully comprehending his situation.

"Simply put, your family has in a way come to take care of you," Shiro said, hoping to get the gist of the point across.

"Family? But why only now?" Naruto said, still on his bed, he looked like he was about to cry for some reason.

"Yes..family," Shiro said, "I am Toukou Shiro..soon to be Uzumaki Shiro. As for why only now..well that's very complicated..I was supposed to come check on you when you turned one, but I had an accident..I sort of died.."

"So..you're a ghost!" Naruto exclaimed, Shiro realized that that wasn't one of the best explanations for his rather late arrival.

"I am very much alive Naruto-kun, Shinigami-sama is just...kind of afraid of my otou-sama, hehe" Shiro, scratching the back of his head, said, "I was protecting my home, but when I was finally able to come here, I had an accident.."

"Oh..but why only now? And who're my parents? Are they alive? Do they love me? Why did they leave me?" Naruto blurted out the questions, as here was a man that was supposed to be family and therefore would or should be able to answer his questions.

"As I said, I had an accident, I died for a time, and was left in a dumpster as a joke by shinigami-sama, remember the monster? That was me," Shiro said, and saw the dawning of recognition pass through the child's eyes.

"You were that monster? Why did you look like that?" Naruto asked, forgetting his fear from the event.

"Eh...Shinigami-sama has a cruel sense of humor," Shiro said.

"So..who are my parents? Can't be you, you're not that old," Naruto said.

"I know who they are, I never met them, but I know who they are," Shiro said, "Your father's name was Namikaze Minato, and your mother was Uzumaki Kushina, and yes, they loved you, and I'm sure they still do."

"They do? Then why'd they leave me?" Naruto asked.

"They had no choice," Shiro said sadly, "Your parents are...really sick...that's why I'm the one who's going to take care of you until they get better."

"Oh..can I visit them? Jiji doesn't know who they are," Naruto pleaded.

"Erm...I'd love to take you to them...but they're really sick," Shiro said, "Not even I have seen them yet, and my Otou-san hasn't been able to yet too..he's the one taking care of them."

"So...what are you, nii-san?" Naruto asked, wondering how Shiro would be fitting into his life.

"I am...well...I am your great grand uncle," Shiro said with a straight face.

"But, but, but, you're not old!" Naruto said.

"Yeah...I know, my aniki is your great grandfather, and he looks kind of like me too," Shiro said.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Its like this...our family has a Kekkai Genkai, a special power, that's why I don't look really old," Shiro said.

"So...what do I call you?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm..." Shiro pretended to think about it, "Just call me Shiro-jiji. Hehe, I don't mind."

"Hai, Shiro-jiji," Naruto said happily and bounced off the bed to hug Shiro, he was happy with whatever family he could get, garbage monster or not.

"Well now, Naruto-kun, you better change," Shiro said, getting the kid of him was easy, "Come to the kitchen when you're done, so we can eat breakfast."

"Hai!" Naruto said happily.

With his intoduction over, Shiro went to the kitchen and noticed the lack of any kind of ingredients for any kind of healthy meal for a growing child. There was only the ever unhealthy instant noodles, while they did for an occasional snack or treat, they just weren't good enough for a growing boy. Shiro actually secretly loved the things, secretly, it was so secret that his father didn't know about it.

To solve the situation, Shiro decided to do something he never thought he would ever actually do.

He summoned.

A small poof of smoke later cleared away to reveal a rabbit and a wolf about the size of tigers.

"What can I do for you Shiro-sama?" both animals asked.

"I need you to get me some kitchen supplies from tou-san," Shiro said, "Can you do that for me?"

"Hai," the two said and poofed away to get the needed supplies, returning a full minute later with everything, including a cook book from his mother as well as a storage scroll with several more from his father, apparently the man had been preparing for eventualities such as this. Work or not, the man managed to do at least something to make things easier.

By the time Naruto got to the kitchen looking all clean and dressed for the day, he found himself waiting for Shiro to finish cooking, and by the smell of things it was going to taste good, better than what he'd get from dumpster diving.

He was presented with a light meal, all the foods were healthy, tasted good, and even looked good. But Naruto noticed that there wasn't any ramen, so he got up to make some, but was stopped by Shiro.

"Ramen is good every now and then, but unless you want to stay short forever, you will have to eat what I prepare for you," Shiro said, "But don't worry, I will allow you to eat ramen sometimes, ok?"

"H-Hai.." Naruto sounded a little bit disappointed, but decided to finish the food he was given, he finally had someone that seemed to really care.

When he was finished eating, Shiro washed the dishes in a manner which fascinated Naruto. Magic was a wonderful thing to have, as well as a difficult thing to explain, which was why it was labeled as a mystery.

"How'd you do that? Make 'em clean themselves?" Naruto asked over and over.

"Magic, I'll teach you when you're older," Shiro said as he inspected Naruto's clothes, cleaned some dirt off of them, and cast a glamour over Naruto as he didn't think a henge would be approriate in such a village where it could easily be dispelled.

"Really?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Mhm," Shiro said nodding a little.

"Yes!" Naruto said ecstatically, "I'm going to be the best ninja ever!"

"If you say so, Naruto-kun," Shiro said, then made sure he looked decent, and that his bandages were still clean, "Now, shall we go?"

"Huh? Go where?" Naruto asked.

"To the Hokage, I mean you do want me to be your guardian, right?" Shiro asked, "Cause if not, I can really just go home."

"Don't leave me Shiro-jiji!" Naruto said grabbing onto the man's pant leg, pleading.

"I won't," Shiro assured the child, "Shall we go then?"

"Hai," Naruto said happily, and willingly held Shiro's hand.

The walk to the Hokage Tower was an uneventful one, no one had bothered Shiro and Naruto on their trip. No one even recognized the little hellion as he walked past, Naruto didn't really notice but no one was sending glares his way. He was, for once in his life, being treated as just any other child.

When he got to the Tower, he was made to wait by the secretary of the Hokage before they could have an audience with him. Shiro had to stop Naruto from barging in by silencing him and immobilizing him. Since he wasn't in a fight, the magic he performed was alright. It was also a bonus that it was nearly undetectable when being used.

They waited for around fifteen minutes before they were allowed entry into the office. Once inside the Hokage didn't recognize who was standing in front of him. His puzzled expression kind of freaked out Naruto..

"Who are you again?" Hiruzen asked after a moment.

"Shiro," Shiro said, "Ah..yes..fogot about that..." he waved his hand and cancelled the illusions covering the two of them, reavealing what they really looked like.

"Ah..forgive me," Hiruzen said, "That was a very convincing henge."

"It wasn't a henge," Shiro said.

"Oh, then what was it?"

"Magic," Shiro said, "One of my family's Kekkai Genkai."

"Well, who am I to doubt you," Hiruzen said sighing, "Why isn't Naruto-kun saying anything?"

"Ah..yeah...forgot about that too," Shiro waved his hand again causing Naruto's voice to echo around the room.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!" Naruto shouted when his voice was returned to him.

"Yes," Shiro said, patting the child on the head.

"Oh..sorry if I was so loud.." Naruto apologized as he noticed the Hokage had covered his ears, "Hehe."

"Its alright Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said, "Now, onto business," he laid out the paperwork as well as the portfolio of land for sale, "Just sign where I have indicated."

"Easy enough," Shiro said, then did as told, when he was done and was about to look over the portfolio, he remembered that he didn't really have all that much funds to spend.

"What are you doing?" Hiruzen asked as he noticed Shiro go through a set of familiar seals.

"I'm making a withdrawal from one of my personal accounts," Shiro said, a poof of smoke later revealed something that the Hokage was not expecting to see. Enma, the Monkey Boss.

The ape knowing just who had summoned him immediately knelt down awaiting his orders. All summons were at one time students and at the same time forever servants of Ryoku and his family, they had all declared it so, even the supposedly traitorous Manda.

"I need you to make a withdrawal from my camping account, the one under the name Yon Kenma, take out about half of it, seal it in a scroll and report back here with the funds," Shiro instructed, watched, and waited for the summon to return with the goods.

"That was Enma wasn't it?" Hiruzen asked, trying to dicern if he wasn't seeing things.

"Yes it was, do you know him?" Shiro asked.

"He's my personal summon and boss of my family's summoning contract," Hiruzen said, "I thought you knew that, and how did you manage to summon him?"

"Ah...tou-san trained him," Shiro said, then smirked.

"Whoa, that was a big monkey!" Naruto excitedly said, "How'd you do that? Can you teach me?"

"Eh..hmm...sure," Shiro said, "But you have to be good for the rest of this meeting, ok?"

"Hai...ano...what do I do now?" Naruto asked.

"I hadn't thought about that..." Shiro said, then conjured some toys for Naruto to play with, they were exact replicas of a few prominent kiri-nin, none of whom were related to him, "Play with those for the time being."

"For me?" Naruto asked.

"Hai," Shiro said, smiled, and silently cast a spell to make sure that the toys never reverted back to magic, there was also the plus side of it being able to freak out some of his friends or acquaintances back in Mist.

"How did you..?" Hiruzen asked.

"Magic," Shiro said, and before he could continue a poof of smoke appeared, revealing Enma with a small scroll.

"Will that be all, Shiro-sama?" Enma asked.

"That will be all, thank you Enma," Shiro said.

"My pleasure," Enma said, nodded in the Hokage's direction and vanished.

Shiro took his sweet time looking through the papers and pictures before finally picking two pieces of land that were found directly beside one another. One was previously owned by none other than the Senju clan, but was sold to the village by the last heir of the Shodaime. The other was owned by the now extinct Kaji clan, well as extinct as the clan could get as most of its final members were female and had either died in missions or had married into other clans. The final elder, the only male that remained, having been sterile/impotent, had no other choice than to sell their land to the village.

The Senju owned one of the largest tracks of land in all of Konoha, it was densely forested thanks to the Shodaime's actions when his clan claimed the land as their own. Most of the land was located behind the Hokage Monument/Mountain, while the rest were fenced off beyond some training grounds. The Kaji lands were near some of the training grounds, they were also fenced off. There were no buildings there, as any of the homes of the clans were situated within the village proper and had been sold or given away before their lands were sold to the village. Shiro did only ask for land after all.

Shiro had not been expecting the price tag at all, he had been expecting quite a sum, but instead was met with quite the cheap bargain. No one had wanted to purchase the lands, and let they go to waste decreasing their once imposible to imagine value. Shiro signed all the documents in what the Hokage could have sworn was one fluid motion, it was amazing.

"I've also prepared a portfolio of some houses and compounds that are up for sale," Hiruzen offered, "Would you be interested in looking through them?"

"No thanks," Shiro said, "The Senju of Konoha, aren't the only ones that can build houses."

"What did you say?" Hiruzen asked, not willing to believe what he had heard.

"I have a kind of Mokuton ability, Naruto-kun does too," Shiro said, his smirk would put the first Uchiha's best to shame, "Along with a few other Kekkai Genkai, that I will be training him in as soon as he is able and is willing."

"Interesting, would it be possible to obtain a list of these abilities and gifts?" Hiruzen asked.

"At the moment...no," Shiro said, "I don't particularly trust Konoha's ability to keep secrets that much."

"Understandable I guess," Hiruzen said, "But would it be at least possible to get a list of things to expect? Things that wouldn't get you in trouble with the rest of your family?"

"I suppose," Shiro said, "How about you just send a letter to tou-san?"

"I can do that?"

"Yeah, sure," Shiro said, "Just have any summon deliver it."

"That simple?"

"Yeah," Shiro said, "Tou-san keeps tabs on the rest of the continent by using the summons. All of them."

"What does that have to do with sending him a message?" Hiruzen asked.

"Its the second fastest way to get in touch with tou-san, Kiri does it all the time, some of the Ootori members have actually pranked tou-san using their summons," Shiro shared, "Funny as hell seeing the Otter summon clan dog piling on tou-san...though I don't think the rest of the court found it all that funny. They thought there was another civil war on our hands. Kinda hard for something like that to happen, specially when kaa-san's the Kage."

"Obaa-chan is a Kage?" Naruto said hearing the last part of the conversation.

"Hai," Shiro said, "Cool huh."

"Hai," Naruto said, his mind going a mile a minute processing just how badass his family was.

"Well, we better get going now," Shiro said, "Naruto-kun, we have to go buy some stuff, then build our new home, as well as move out from your apartment."

"Huh? Move?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, move," Shiro said, "I just bought us someplace to live...I just have to build the house."

"Ok...will you still teach me that cool jutsu you did?" Naruto asked.

"Sure," Shiro said, "You are welcome to watch if you want Hiruzen."

"I'll try and escape from work later," the Hokage said.

"*"

Shopping was another uneventful affair, the only thing they received from the other members of the village were some odd looks and confused or amused stares. They went around, shop to shop, buying this and that. From clothes to furniture, to things that didn't even make sense, like scrap metal and things that most people would view as garbage.

What was odd about their multiple purchases was that they did not have a team of genin helping them. It was a rather uncommon sight in a village that relied on ninja to perform almost everything, almost. There were those people that did on occasion decide to perform their own chores, have their children do it, or have someone else do it. There were those that stil did their own shopping, but no one really did it like Shiro and Naruto, both of whom were in disguise. Shiro did most of the carrying, piling things up in piles and not bothering to shirnk anything at all. If it were not for his attire and lack of a forehead protector, people would have confused him with a shinobi, which he was not even though he could do most if not everything and more that they were capable of.

Some people decided to follow them to their destination, curious as to what so many things were needed for as well as wanting to know where they lived. But those people were not fully able to follow them to their home as Shiro had made sure to cast a few charms around himself and Naruto, and once they were on the properties, he placed wards and barriers and those nifty spells around the properties as well, and would leave them there for now.

When they finally reached a large enough clearing in the Kaji land, one that had a nearby miniature lake, Shiro put down all of their purchases and removed both of their glamours, returning their looks to what they were supposed to look like.

"Alright," Shiro said, "You still want to learn how to summon?"

"Hai!" Naruto replied enthusiastically.

"Normally you'd need to know how chakra works and have a lot of it," Shiro said, "But for this...well...you don't really need much, you just need to know how to call it out."

"Ok...how?" Naruto asked.

"Have a seat, this might take a while," Shiro said, reaching down into the ground and into nature and making a smooth sump rise out of the ground.

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Naruto asked.

"That was a mixture of magic and ninjutsu, and something else," Shiro said, "Now sit on the stump, don't worry, its not hard, but don't you dare fall asleep."

"Hai," Naruto said and sat down on the stump that actually felt like a couch or a slightly more consistent bean bag.

"Now I want you to close your eyes," Shiro instructed, noting that Naruto had done so, he continued, "Now I want you to focus on one thing, your breathing, your heart beat, or my voice."

Shiro was sure that Naruto was doing what he told him to do, but wanting to be sure, pulled out a similar stump for himself, sat down and began his own meditation. He wasn't a sage exactly, but he could connect to the world around him. His brother was better, being a shinobi and such a state he could perform the spell less version of legilimency that his father was capable of, but barely. He was unable to delve too deep into someone else's mind, but he was able to scan surface thoughts. In his present state he was able to mentally send his intructions to Naruto instead of speak them aloud.

'_Now that you have picked on focusing on your heartbeat, I want you to..._' he was cut off from giving instructions as he was suddenly pulled into Naruto's mind by a force he barely recognized, '_Oh shit._'

"Shiro-jiji, where are we? Do I find my chakra here?" Naruto asked once Shiro appeared beside him.

"We are in your mind," Shiro said, while looking around warily, "It will be easier to find your chakra here...but there is something else here..."

"What?" Naruto asked, then noticed that Shiro was all tense as if preparing for some kind of attack, "Shiro-jiji, you're scaring me."

"The reason why people glare at you...it is here...stick close to me," Shiro said as he began to call forth his magics to him as his chakra would be useless here.

"What's here?" Naruto asked, scared now.

"The Kyuubi is here," Shiro answered without hesitation, "Looks like you'll have to fight it..."

"M-Me?" Naruto asked, truly frightened, he knew now that the Yondaime, whoever he was, was unable to kill it and now he was supposed to fight it.

"Unfortunately..." Shiro said, "I'll help of course, but you will be the one that will have to take its power."

"B-But..." Naruto said.

"Don't worry so much," Shiro said, "Once we find it, I'll make sure to make it focus on me...but you have to grab hold of its power and make it yours. We ain't leaving here unless you do."

"But why me?" Naruto whispered as they slowly and cautiously walked the hallways of his own mind, one which he didn't seem to have much control over for some reason.

"Because you are the prison of the monster," Shiro explained as best he could, "You are the final protectors of Konoha."

"Huh? But why me?" Naruto asked.

"Who else would a Hokage trust to keep his village safe," Shiro said, "But his own family."

"Huh?" Naruto said not fully comprehending.

"Your father, I told you his name," Shiro said, "Your father is the Yondaime, he was ready to sacrifice his life for his village, he trusted no other to protect the village save for you, his son."

"But...why? If the villagers know...why do they hate me?" Naruto couldn't comprehend why a village his father loved could treat him like a monster, if he really was a monster he would have attacked and killed them all by now.

"Naruto-kun," Shiro said as kindly as possible, "While there are many of those that only see the monster, there are those like myself and the Sandaime that see you for who you are, and not what you are. We are the people that matter, not the hundreds of others that cannot see the real you."

"A-are you sure?" Naruto asked, "But what if they hurt you...because of me?"

"Sure about what? That we are the ones that should matter? Of course," Shiro said, "AS for being hurt or something because of you, no one can do that if they don't recognize me or you."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Didn't you notice while we were shopping no one really minded you?" Shiro said.

"Ano...no," Naruto admitted.

"I changed the way we looked," Shiro said, "As long as they don't know who you and I are, they will leave us alone."

"Oh...ok," he said, "But what if I want friends...how do I make them friends with them?"

"Ah...hmm...I'll think of something," Shiro said, "You could simply say that you have to hide the way you really look like for your own protection or something like that...anyway, if someone wants to be your friends it shouldn't matter what you look like, but when they are your friend you can tell them that you are wearing a disguise."

"Ok," Naruto said, sounging a little bit better, "About the monster?"

"What about it?" Shiro asked.

"Its over there, I think," Naruto said pointing at the large gate with a paper seal holding it closed.

"Kushiyose no Jutsu," Shiro said as he slammed a hand on the ground, summoning a scroll toad, specifically the one that held the key of the seal. He knew of its existence when he realized that all seals no matter how complex had a counter, and he remembered that the Yondaime was a toad summoner.

"What? Where? Shiro-sama?" the scroll toad that appeared said.

"Its a bit early for you to relinguish the power sealed within you," Shiro informed it, "But if you don't Naruto-kun and myself will be unable to leave his mind."

"H-how do you know about Naruto?" the scroll toad asked.

"Can't you think of a possible reason for that on your own," Shiro said, "Now give him the key before the Kyuubi wakes up, its keeping us here subconsciously."

"If you say so, Shiro-sama, who am I to refuse you," the toad said and unfurled itself.

"Naruto-kun, place your palm on the circle," Shiro said, lifting up Naruto so he could reach the circle, when Naruto did, the seals reacted and transfered to him.

"I'll be going now," the toad said before leaving, leaving Naruto alone with Shiro and the sealed Kyuubi.

"Now what?" Naruto asked.

"Now you unlock the seal," Shiro said and brought Naruto over to the seal, tore off the paper seal then revealed both the actual lock and Naruto's stomach seal, "Place your hand on the seal on your stomach and twist."

"Hai," Naruto said, and did as instructed.

Shiro was forced to jump back with Naruto in his hands as the gates suddenly swung open revealing the monstrous body of the Kyuubi, still slumbering, but somewhat aware of what was going on around it, as it groggily stood up and turned to face where the seal once stood.

"Remember," Shiro told Naruto, "When it is vulnerable, I want you to grab hold of its power, and pull, make it your own, only when its power is yours will Konoha be truly safe, and only then will I be able to really seal it."

"Hai," Naruto said with as much conviction as he could for his age, while at the same time looking at the bunny monster with a little fear.

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun," Shiro, who had removed his bandages and vanished them, said, "I will protect you at all times. I promise, no harm will come to you, and I don't break my promises."

"Hai," Naruto said, wishing that what Shiro said was really true.

"Hey Kyuubi! Wake the hell up!" Shiro shouted from beside Naruto, while at the same time flaring his aura, it was powerful, Naruto had never felt so much power flowing from a single source before.

The half awake but fully aware bijuu noticed the sudden influx of power, and focused its fully awake attention on the source of the unimaginable power, it couldn't come from his host after all that much he knew. He was surprised at what he saw. A memory of being beaten twice by a certain individual surfaced. It made him slightly delusional, but he superimposed Ryoku's image on his son. The rage flowed out of the Kyuubi. He saw red.

"**Tatsujin****...**" the Kyuubi said it with so much hate, that Naruto did more than flinch but thanks to Shiro's very presence, he did no more than take a step back, "**Third time's the charm...prepare for ****DEATH****!**"

When the last word left its mutated bunny lips, Shiro shielded himself and Naruto from the beam of concentrated chakra that flew their way with a barrier of half of the magic he had at his disposal. This was the Kyuubi after all, and he wasn't his father, he couldn't afford to hold back even in the slightest.

Outside the forced double mindscape, Shiro's aura exploded out of his body, covering the clearing, bathing it in a brilliant and beautiful light. Even in the real world, his aura, his magic and chakra, held back the oppressive one that the Kyuubi managed to manifest. There was enough of the bijuu's aura in the real world to alert the Hokage of its sudden resurgence, and gave him the perfect reason to escape the dreaded paperwork, as well as have at least three squads of Anbu to follow him to the source of the feeling.

The protective wards and barriers were fueled and made stronger by the explosion of Shiro's aura, making them more powerful. Even the charms in place grew in strength. Notice-me-nots, modified Muggle repelling, and a number of other ways to hide a place were made a hell of a lot more effective. The Hokage and company were misdirected and the like a couple of times. They didn't know if they would be able to make it to the source in time, and the Hokage had forgotten to alert anyone else of the possible crisis.

Within Naruto's mindscape, Shiro was finally able to retaliate, sending a concentrated beam of his own magic at the Kyuubi, forcing it to defend itself using all of its tails. As he was in a semi-sage-like state, his magic drew on that of the ambient magic of the world, and by doing so alerted his own father of the present state of affairs.

It was a good thing that his magic had done so, else he wouldn't have survived from the Kyuubi's sneak attack. It had managed to move an appendage from out of the range of the beam of magic, ad it had been headed for Shiro's head. Naruto stood behind Shiro, and was surprised when a second and third man appeared from out of nowhere.

Ryoku appeared and deflected the blow with one of his swords, he was in his official daimyo robes, while Takeshi, who had been pulled along, was in his Anbu Commander attire. Mei was busy keeping the Anbu intact as Takeshi had vanished during a meeting.

"I leave you alone for a few years and you get into this much trouble, what the hell's wrong with you?" Ryoku and Takeshi jokingly say, as both of them block a few more sneak attacks.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked from behind Shiro.

"I am Toukou Ryoku," Ryoku introduces himself, then rushes the Kyuubi, blades in hand, his own aura exploding around him, but not at full power.

"I am Jikoku Takeshi," Takeshi said as he deflected a few energy balls that the Kyuubi's tails managed to form and fling in their direction, "I'm Shiro's older brother."

"Naruto, run to the Kyuubi and while we distract it, get its power," Shiro instructed, then he and Takeshi both flung Naruto over to the side as they dispersed the beam attack and the Kyuubi which was now free to attack the three astral forms of three of his enemies.

"Hey Kyuubi!" Ryoku shouted as he kicked the beast up and down forcing it to land painfully on its ass, "While I can't meddle directly with fate and destiny, that's doesn't mean I can't kick," he kicked the Kyuubi again, "Your," another kick, "Ass!" he kicked its balls forcing his sons to wince and the beast to feel a whole other realm of pain.

Even though it was in incredible pain, it still managed to swing its nine tails and managed to slam Takeshi and Shiro into separate walls, while attempting harm its host. Shiro and Takeshi had moved fast enough to take the full force of the attack on Naruto, showing just how insane they were and how far both would go to keep a promise.

When Ryoku saw this, the Kyuubi had a feeling that it was in for a whole new level of pain, Ryoku's aura vanished, and in its place was simple a single feeling. It wasn't an aura that could be felt, but the sheer magnitude of the Killing Intent that filled the place, and the world outside the mindscape, was enough to cause the Hokage and his people to double their efforts to get to the source of it all. All the way in Kiri, Mei had a feeling that something bad had happened, but she believed in her husband to take care of it for some reason, the other reason being that she was simply too busy dealing with the village problems, and a few some court officials had sent her since her husband's sudden disappearance. Kumo had _tried_ to invade again.

"_**I am Toukou Ryoku, you hurt my family,**_" Ryoku said, his killing intent growing as each moment passed, it was so thick that it could be considered an aura all its own, "_**Prepare to die.**_"

"Naruto-kun," Shiro, carried the child near one of the unoccupied tails of the beast, said, "Grab hold its power, and take it as your own. Remember, no matter what happens, we are here for you."

"Yeah, gaki," Takeshi said, "We're here for you, and we'll protect you, with our lives."

"Hai," Naruto said and grabbed onto the visible aura of power that surrounded the tail, he pulled it into himself, and as he began to pull it, the Kyuubi, while dealing with Ryoku decided on a new form of attack, he attacked the child's very soul.

"I-Its attacking his soul!" Takeshi said as he noticed the kid slump to the ground, still holding onto the power, but it looked like the beast was pulling Naruto's own power, his own soul away from him.

"W-We can't help him there," Shiro said.

"Then we'll do what we can for him," Takeshi said, "Are we not our father's sons. We promised the kid we'd be here for him. Let's let our feelings be known!"

The two brothers ran up the length of the tail and joined their father deliver some physical torture on a monster that had taken many lives, not once, not twice, but countless times.

In Naruto's soul room, he found himself alone, the two brothers that promised to protect him were not there. It was all darkness, he believed that he was once again alone in the world. Above him was the Kyuubi, eating away at his very soul.

He had tried calling for help, but no one came to help him. The Hokage did not appear with a squad of Anbu to make sure he was alright. Shiro did not come to his aid, nor did his brother and that other man.

He was bombarded with snippets of memories of his short life. He was bombarded by the words of hate, and the glares, and most of all the looks of indifference. He was bombarded with all the bad things that had happened to him in his short life, even some of the assassination attemps made on his life before he could even crawl. The Kyuubi did not need to say anything, simply send all of those things the kid's way.

'_**Gaki,**_' a voice suddenly penetrated the darkness, it was a voice that only Naruto could hear, '_**You should believe in yourself more, you should believe in your family more, just as they believe in you.**_'

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, uncurling himself from the ball he had curled into.

'_**I was the one that helped your tou-san that night,**_' the voice said, '_**He too believed and still believes in you. They, who called and see you as family, are still fighting for you, are still protecting you. It is now up to you, it is your duty to overcome this darkness. Will you allow the monster to take over? To escape? To run free and destroy your village? Will another have to suffer just as you have? Or will you stand on your own two feet, face this challenge as you have faced your short life with more determination and will to succeed and conquer than any other man in your position?**_'

Brief flashes, snippets, of memories appeared before him of the Hokage, followed by flashes of Shiro, Takeshi, and Ryoku, as they bombarded the Kyuubi will attacks from all three disciplines, and then some.

Deep down he believed that his parents loved him, and Shiro had just confirmed that they did, but he was still surprised to hear a vaguely familiar voice accompany some of the flashes of memories or current events.

"_I will not let you hurt my son!" Namikaze Minato declared as one of the gates of the seal morphed into his form as he joined the fight, the other gate morphed into Uzumaki Kushia who also joined the fight._

They were not the only ones to join the fight, from out of nowhere various other warriors joined the fray, they were remnants of their former glories, but they were spiritually powerful enough to manifest within Naruto's mind to lend his aid. These were figures of the past, distant and recent.

'_**I would help you too, but there are rules in place that prevent me from doing so,**_' the voice said, '_**Those others too, some are your family, they have come through space and time to help you at this hour of need. They too believe in you, in that you will make the right choice, that you will not back down, will not give up. So, what will you do, Namikaze Naruto? Will you give up and let the Kyuubi win, or will you stand and fight?**_'

"I..." Naruto said hesitating, and chose to watch the flashes a little bit more.

Out in the real world, the Hokage had finally arrived near the source of the his troubles for the day. What he found surprised, shocked, and frightened himself as his Anbu. He found Shiro and Naruto sitting on the two stumps in what looked like meditative states, but that was not what caused such feelings to arise in them. It was the presence of the aura that filled the area.

Shiro's hand was resting on Naruto's shoulder, but his wasn't the only one there, looking as if supporting him. There were others, they looked like ghosts standing there, hands on the shoulders of the boy, and those that could not reach him, had their hands on the shoulders of the ones that could.

That which caused the shock and surprise was the who was there supporting the boy with their presence, their ghostly presences, as if their chakra which lingered in the world had pulled them back into the world, the ones that Hiruzen recognized as being dead that is. He would and could never forget his senseis, the brothers Hokage. He could never forget his students' loved ones, precious people that had long passed, Tsunade's Dan and Nawaki. Hatake Sakumo was there as well, giving his support, along with the man's teammates. Kagemusha, with his unmistakeable Rin'negan eyes, the Shodaime Ryuuko Kimura of Tetsu no Kuni, wearing his clan battle armor. There were many more.

What frightened them were not those people, but the one that stood behind Shiro, and had a hand on the man's shoulder. It was a being who wore the robes of a priest, had pale purple skin, horns, fangs, clawed hands, and single small ceremonial knife hanging from its belt, it also had long white unruly hair, its eyes were golden. His very aura was one which the Hokage and his Anbu did not want to feel until they were ready, which was on their death beds.

The more they stared the more they wondered just what was going on. They were rooted to the spots they were standing on, unable to move, not that they knew what they should be doing. It was only when the visage of a nine tailed fox erupted from Naruto's body did the Hokage move into action.

"Where do you think you're going," Hiruzen said clamping a hand on Naruto's shoulder, he was immediately sucked into the boy's mindscape, and instantly joined the fight, his Anbu following his lead.

From within his soul room, the plane of existence where the soul was housed, Naruto watched as the Sandaime himself appeared with his Anbu, launching themselves at the beast, buying Naruto some more time.

'_**Well...they can't fight on forever without you, you know,**_' the Shinigami reminded Naruto, '_**So what're you gonna do? If you don't fight, then I might as well just take them all with me, allowing them to help you is really pushing it for me.**_'

"I..." Naruto, who was sitting, said.

"_**Give up, you are only stalling the inevitable! Now that the seal has been released, it is only a matter of time before I am truly free!**" the Kyuubi declared as he forced his power to explode around him pushing aside all of those that were attacking him._

_Takeshi fell to his knees as soon as he tried to rise up from the ground after slamming into a wall like the rest. Shiro was immediately at his side._

"_Rest a while brother," Shiro pleaded, "Unlike the rest of us, you and tou-san are here in full."_

"_I know...but I've got to buy him some more time," Takeshi said, and tried to rise again, only for him to spit cough out more blood._

"_You're pushing yourself too hard, let me take on your half of the burden," Shiro pleaded, he wasn't as bad as his brother, "Please, I don't want to lose you."_

"_Shiro," Takeshi said, "I will not let you fight without me, I am your older brother, it is my duty and right to protect you, or at least fight by your side. Naruto-kun is family too, I wont let all of you fight help him without me."_

"_Fine," Shiro said, "But you're not moving from here, push me your power through our link, I'll handle the physical part."_

"_Tch, fine," Takeshi said, and pushed his power through their brotherly and twinly link to each other, "Now kick kitsune ass!"_

"_Naruto, if you can hear me," Shiro said as he joined the rest that had already jumped back into the fray, "Take all the time you need, we'll keep this teme busy."_

"_Gaki, we're counting on you," Ryoku mumbled as he kicked the fox in the gonads again, "We'll hold it back for as long as you need."_

"_Fight on kid," one Anbu, as he charged the beast his astral form bleeding, said, "You've held it back these few years, I believe in you."_

"_Fight on Uzumaki Naruto," another Anbu said as he took a hit meant for the Sandaime, "You can...ugh...beat this thing."_

"_Minato!" someone shouted as the Yondaime Hokage was skewered by an attack send by the Kyuubi his wife's way, Kushina rushed to where he slammed into the ground._

"_Minato..." Kushina said, worry etched on her face and in her voice._

"_I..." Minato said, "I'm sorry...for the burden...Naruto-kun..."_

"_I will not allow you to die for real, my son," Naruto's grandfather said from beside Minato, "Go back to your body, and live to see your son another day."_

"_H-Hai," Minato said a tear trickling down his cheek, "I believe in you...Naruto..." he finally faded from the mindscape, Kushina following him after repeating the words._

"_I sacrificed my life for my family once," Naruto's grandfather said, "I will do so again!"_

_The man then bullrushed the Kyuubi, gathering all his remaining energy, drawing from his very soul itself, one would think that Minato had come up with the Rasengan all on his own, one would be mistaken. The old man, formed a spinning disk of energy in one hand and thrust it at the Kyuubi, it sent shockwaves of pain through the place it hit, but managing to buy his companions time to rest while the Kyuubi focused all its attention on him._

'_**That idiot!**_' the Shinigami said, '_**Gaki, see how many people love and believe in you? Stand and fight and there could be more. I leave you now, your grandfather needs some saving...I hope I am not too late.**_'

Naruto continued to watch the battle from all sides, from all angles, hearing and seeing everything that these people were willing to do for him. His father had almost died for him, his mother as well. The Sandaime really did care, he continued to fight, even as his Anbu tried to hold him back and fight in his stead. Those older souls were fighting on, some having also vanished due to losing too much energy.

He also watched as his paternal grandfather was shreded to pieces by the Kyuubi's many tails.

'_**Forced Reincarnation!**_' he heard the Shinigami call in a voice only he and probably his grandfather could hear, afterwhich he saw the gruesome sight turn into shining balls of light that vanished after some seconds.

His parents believed in him, believing that they would one day be able to see him again. His grandfather had died for him and his allies in the fight. The Sandaime fought on, against the pleading of his Anbu, all the while thinking of Naruto as his own grandson. His new guardian, Shiro, was relentlessly fighting as his twin Takeshi supplied him the power to fight. There was even that man Ryoku, his great great grandfather, who fought alongside those that one shinobi that kept spewing jutsu like they were nothing, that kunoichi that looked to be performing genjutsu that was causing the Kyuubi to lose focus every now and then, that one woman, the sage, that kept attacking the Kyuubi by taijutsu, and that one samurai.

While most of these people were dead, most of them he didn't even recognize, some of them he did. They were all fighting to protect him, to give him more time, and they were all telling him one thing.

They believed in him.

They loved him.

Him.

Naruto.

While some part of his being were forced to mature at an accelarated rate, he was still a child. No matter the amount of hardships he had faced in his short life, he still craved to be noticed, priased, liked, loved, respected, all the things that others his age, older and younger, were able to experience. He now had them, from a few among the living, and a number of the already dead. He knew then and there, that while they were few in number now, they would grow as he grew older. He would show the world his worth. He would protect those precious to him, those that were now protecting him. He would grow strong, he woud...

"I..." Naruto said, softly at first, then his voice grew stronger with each word, "I...will..." he stood up, his head bowed, "I will stand...I will fight...and I will..." he raised his head defiantly, his eyes bore the combined Will of All, a determination as great as all those before him, the strength to stand the test of time, and an unending drive to succeed, and in a powerful voice, one which would normally never be heard come out of a child declared for all that could hear, "I. Will. **LIVE!**"

He had temporarily run away, but now, he would fight, he would take that which was now rightfully his. The power of the Kyuubi was his, the Kyuubi just wasn't aware of it yet. The last of his soul was all that remained, the Kyuubi was at the brink of winning, consuming his soul, and breaking out of the body of the boy.

"**You have lost! Your resistance was futile! With one final pull, I will be free!**" the Kyuubi's voice boomed within the mindscape of his host, all his visible and remaining opponents were finally spent, and were helpless as they watched the Kyuubi tug on the power, the link connecting him to his host.

'_Naruto,_' Ryoku mentally said, '_Show us what you've got._'

"Not on my watch!" Naruto appared on the threshold of where the seal gate used to be, in one hand was the link between him and the beast, and the look on his face told all those that could see it that he was not backing down.

"**Ah, so my host has finally come, prepared to die now are you? Prepared to hand over the last of your soul over to me?**" the Kyuubi mocked the child as he tried to pull the rest of the boy's soul into itself, it tried and tried, and tried, "**What...What is the meaning of this...What have you...**"

"I will protect my precious people," Naruto stated, and if it were not for the situation they were all in, most would have found such a declaration cute, "I will finish what my tou-san started..."

As the Kyuubi continued to pull on the link, Naruto simply did what the Kyuubi thought was impossible, he pulled with all his might and the power of the Kyuubi simply flowed into Naruto, merging with himself, permanently separating itself from the monster.

The sudden transfer of power, shoved all the former combatants out of Naruto's mind, along with the Kyuubi. Those with bodies were flung into their bodies with enough force to cause them to flew backwards, while those that were just souls, spirits, were forced away by the spiritual aspect of the power. The Kyuubi on the otherhand flew into the hands of the Shinigami, who stood in the place that Shiro had occupied.

"**Your soul is mine...now...finally,**" the Shinigami told it as it tried to struggle, it may have been a former part of another soul, but after years upon years of being a separate entity, it had become a single soul unto itself.

When all the power finally settled within Naruto, there was such an explosion of power that rushed out of Naruto that it sent a shockwave outward that would have been felt all over the continent had it not been for the wards and barriers in place around the property. Only the more sensitive of the Konoha shinobi population had managed to feel it.

"Ugh..." was all that escaped from Naruto's mouth before finally passing into blissful unconsciousness.

"I got you," Shiro said as he was probably the only one of them all that still had the strength to move as fast as he did, "Oh...Naruto-kun...you did good kiddo, you did good."

"Is he alright?" the Sandaime asked as he slowly and cautiously approached the two, followed by Ryoku who had Takeshi in his arms, and the ghosts of the founders of the shinobi and samurai worlds as they were known today.

"He's just unconscious...like in a coma, but one which he will most assuredly wake from...in..." Shiro tried to make a guess.

"A week's time," Ryoku supplied, "I have seen it."

"What tou-san said," Shiro said, "Minus the seeing it part."

"Hokage-dono, it looks like my son will be needed to spend some time in your hospital, would it be possible to arrange for a room?" Ryoku asked the Sandaime.

"It will be possible, Mizu Daimyo-dono," the Sandaime replied, "Will I be needing to send word to your country about this?"

"No need," Ryoku said, "I will inform my wife of what has transpired this day."

"Your wife?" the Sandaime asked, "Ah..yes..it slipped my mind."

"Understandable," Ryoku said, "Shiro, take Naruto, he'll share a room with your brother."

"Sucks that I wasn't able to make the house for us..." Shiro said as he lifted Naruto up, and they began to walk to the hospital, an Anbu had tried to carry his Kage the way, but was ordered not to even try.

"_Good luck and may you find much happiness in life,_" Kagemusha whispered to Naruto as Shiro passed by him and his friends, the ghosts of the past and founding of the world, before they vanished, "_Namikaze Naruto._"


	40. Chapter 40

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty**_

"Make sure they this coucil of yours keep the information of the final termination of the Kyuubi a secret," Ryoku advised the younger man, Sarutobi Hiruzen, everyone alive was younger than Ryoku, "Your village does not deserve to know of such an event."

"I shall try," Hiruzen agreed to at least try, "How long will you be staying here?"

"Probably until my wife picks me and my elder son up," Ryoku said, "Naruto-kun is a strong boy, so much potential."

"I would have to agree with you," Hiruzen said, "I will inform the guards assigned to the gate to inform me if any Kiri-nin arrive."

"They will not arrive as Kiri-nin," Ryoku informed him.

"They won't? As what then?" Hiruzen asked.

"Naruto-kun's heritage will continue to be kept a secret, while he may know of his family, he knows that it is imperative that such information be kept a secret for now," Ryoku said, "They will arrive as a supply caravan delivering some supplies from somewhere else in Mizu no Kuni, the delivery will consist of materials for one of the local blacksmiths."

"Which one, might I ask," Hiruzen asked.

"'The Pots and Pans'," Ryoku replied.

"I get my kunai from there," Hiruzen said, "I'm being supplied by Kiri aren't I."

"Kinda," Ryoku said, then smirked, "Nice ta know, ain't it. There's a reason Danzo hates the owner with a passion, he just doesn't know why his blood boils every time that guy is mentioned, now you know why."

"He's a spy of yours isn't he.." Hiruzen said.

"Him? Nah," Ryoku said, "He's a friend though, I can't believe you didn't know that a former member of the Seven was supplying you with weapons."

"Miyaki Tezuka...is a former member of the Seven?" Hiruzen asked, "I honestly didn't know."

"Well now you do," Ryoku said, "Though I can't remember why he retired though...must've been something I did."

"Well...I won't have him arrested," Hiruzen said, "As crazy as that sounds, I'll be going attending that meeting of mine now, I'm running late as it is."

"Late?" Ryoku said, "Late? You're the Hokage for crying out loud, you are never late, and never early, you arrive when it suits you. While it may be said that time waits for no man, you are the one that sets the time. You lead this village, if they get all cranky from making you wait, you simply remind them that you are the leader of this village. If they demand you to tell them where you were and what you were doing, you remind them just who they are demanding things from."

"Thanks for the advice," Hiruzen said, "How do you know so much? Did any or have any of your subordinates question you?"

"No," Ryoku said, "They know and always remember just who I am and what I am. When they forget, I _remind_ them."

"I will remember that, I had forgotten," Hiruzen said, "Thank you."

"No problem," Ryoku said, "Now remember to come by again after the meeting."

When the Kage finally left the hospital room, Ryoku shifted his attention to Takeshi who was still sleeping, then to Naruto who was still in his coma, and finally to Shiro who was conflicted in making his decision of whose bed he would be sitting beside, his brother or his charge.

"Tend to your brother, while I look after the gaki," Ryoku said, making the decision for him, "I will also be taking care of the construction of your house."

"Arigato, tou-san," Shiro said, and moved a chair over by his brother's bed and sat down.

#

At the end of the week, Mei and her Seven arrived at the gate of the village disguised as the escort of the supply caravan, they used a combination of genjutsu and make up to hide how they really looked. Every member of the convoy knew of the importance of keeping their identities secret, they went so far as to fake their identification. Being the wife of the daimyo and being the Mizukage at the same time made performing such normally illegal activities easy.

"Halt," one Chunin guard said once Mei and company entered the gate, "State your business, and prepare your identification papers."

"We're here to make a delivery to 'The Pots and Pans'," Hoshigaki Kisame, roughly the largest man of the group, stated, he had the one with the most layers of cloth covering his body, Samehada was sealed, "We're also here to pick up some people from the hospital."

Mei handed over all of their identification papers, and other documents, to the other Chunin guard who looked them over. Finding nothing wrong with them, they allowed the convoy to enter without any additional hassle, never suspecting that they had just allowed the top eight fighters of Kirigakure no Sato through the main gates, along with a few others of Anbu level.

The Anbu group, the one who were playing the part of the actual delivery team made their way to where 'The Pots and Pans' was located, being their first time there, they requested that a guide lead them to the shop. While the Kage level group of ninja asked for directions to the hospital.

Once they got there, Mei contacted her husband so as to know who or what to ask for.

'_Ryo-kun, who's name are you under?_' Mei asked, knowing that her husband had heard her, and most likely knew that they were already there.

"Ah, Mei-chan," Ryoku said as he walked over to her and her escort, he had been waiting for them ever since they entered the village, "Follow me, Takeshi-kun is awake, and the gaki should awake in a few minutes."

"I can't believe you just left like that," Mei said as they walked to the room, "No note, no nothing, you didn't even bother to inform anyone about your sudden departure."

"I know, I'm sorry," Ryoku said, "I had to move fast, Shiro-kun could have died had I not acted."

"I know, its just that, you could have at least informed me before you summoned your entire self," Mei said, "Byakko-kun vanished before I could ask about the situation, the black ops were in chaos since Takeshi-kun left while a meeting was taking place."

"So he's told me," Ryoku said, "What's done is done, nothing I can do about it now, is there."

"I suppose not," Mei said as they entered the room, and she immediately rushed to her sons, and fussed over the two grown men, even Shiro who was not in a bed.

"Poor princes," Choujuro said, sounding shy and unsure of himself for some reason.

"So..." Yagura said, "How's the gaki? I'm assuming he was the reason you ported over here in the first place."

"He should be waking up in a few minutes," Ryoku said, "That beast sure was a pain in the ass, if it weren't for the possibility of the gaki being harmed, I would have gone all out."

"Ugh..." the voice of a child was heard coming from Naruto's bed signalling that he was finally waking up, "What happened...the Kyuubi!"

"Settle down, kid," Ryoku said, appearing instantly at his side, Shiro a moment later, followed by Takeshi who leaned on his mother and Mei, "All's well, you're in the hospital."

"Oh...ok," Naruto said, he then noticed the other people in the room with him, "Who're they?"

"I am Jikoku Mei, your great great grandmother," Mei introduced herself as Ryoku sent a burst of healing magic into his son, getting him used to standing on his own faster now that it was time for him to be leaving, unless Mei decided to stay longer.

"Mei-baa-chan," Naruto said, testing how it sounded.

"That's me," Mei said, "Its good to finally meet you."

"I'm Choujuro," Choujurou decided to introduce himself, "I'm the seventh member of the Shinobigatana Nananin Shu."

"Nice to meet you nii-san," Naruto said.

"Good thing no one's listening in huh," Kisame, removed the things hiding his face, said, "I'm Hoshigaki Kisame, the taichou of the group."

"Nice to meet you, Sushi-san," Naruto said, not really thinking much of what he said, but it was the first thing that came to mind seeing as Kisame kind of looked like a fishman.

"S-S-Sushi-san?" Kisame stuttered, he unsealed Samehada and tried to attack the kid, "I'mma cut you in half!"

Tried, because two of his surbordinates grabbed hold of him.

"No one calls me that and lives!" Kisame threatened, "Hey! Lemme go! Lemme go!"

"Sushi-chan," Ryoku stated, "Do not threaten my great great grandson."

"H-hai!" Kisame resealed his sword and squeaked, instantly moving to as far away from his former kage and current daimyo as he could, but still be in the room.

"You still got it, Yondaime-sama," Yagura congratulated his former kage, then shifted his attention to Naruto, "I am Yagura, nice to meet you Naruto-kun, and don't worry about Kisame's threat, he didn't really mean it."

"Nice to meet you too, Yagura-nii-san," Naruto greeted back, then asked, "Why'd you call Ryoku-jiji Yondaime?"

"Because he was the Yondaime Mizukage," Yagura answered.

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Raiga said, "I am Kurosaki Raiga, of the same group else I wouldn't be here. Nice to meet you gaki."

"Nice to meet you too," Naruto said.

"I'm Minami Usagi," Usagi, a kunoichi, said, "I am Godaime Mizukage-sama's replacement among the Seven Swordsmen."

She had a mixture of black and white shoulder length hair, and wore a black mesh shirt underneath a white doctor's lab coat, black boots, and red fingerless gloves, her sword was wrapped around her waist, while a ninja-to was strapped to her back.

"Nice to meet you nee-san," Naruto said.

"The name's Momochi Zabuza," Zabuza introduced himself, "I look forward to sparring with you sometime in the future."

"Um..I do...too?" Naruto said usure about his reply.

"I am Kaguya Shiki," the Kaguya of the group stated, "It is an honor to meet you, Naruto-sama."

"Uhm...nice to meet you too," Naruto said.

"Really Shiki-kun, calling him sama," Usagi said, "It might go to his head, that one as great as you see him as your superior. He's not even a genin yet."

"He is still the great great grandson of our kage," Shiki said.

"Um..could you just call me Naruto?" Naruto asked.

"Very well...Naruto-sama," Shiki said, he was holding back a smirk.

"Shiki-nii-san," Naruto said.

"Hai, Naruto-sama?" Shiki, whose eyes wer smiling, said.

"Never mind," Naruto said noticing the man's eyes.

"Ok Naruto-sama," Shiki said, his eyes shining in triumph.

The Mizu delegation chatted for a while with Naruto, they were waiting for the arrival of the Hokage before leaving the village, minus Shiro of course. It didn't take all that long before the Hokage arrived flanked by two of his personal Anbu guard. He left them outside of the room, before entering himself.

"Ah, Hiruzen, you have finally arrived," Ryoku greeted the young old man, "I was wondering if you were ever going to return, last I saw you was at the start of the week."

"My apologies, I had a village to straighten out," Hiruzen said, "How is Naruto-kun?"

"Hiya Jiji!" Naruto greeted from his bed, the members of the Seven moving aside.

"Naruto-kun," the Hokage said as he moved beside the bed, "How are you feeling?"

"Great! A little sore in places, but great!" Naruto said.

"That's good to know," the Hokage said.

"Hokage-dono," Mei greeted the Hokage, "I hope that the things Shiro-kun has informed me of Naruto-kun's treatment in this village will no longer be repeated, the attempts on his life and other such things."

"I give you my word of honor that I will try harder," the Hokage promised, "I will try, but I'm sure with your son here to help Naruto-kun, such things will be avoided even more now."

"You had better hope so," Mei said.

"Yes, well," Hiruzen said, "How long will you be staying in the village?"

"Not much longer," Mei said, "I only came here to escort the delivery convoy, get my husband and son back, and finally visit Naruto-kun."

"You're leaving already?" Naruto asked from the bed, he had been listening to the conversation.

"Hai, Naruto-kun, we must," Mei said, "I am Mizukage, I have responsibilities to perform, but don't worry, Shiro-kun will stay with you, and you can write to us."

"Ryoku-jiji, you too?" Naruto asked.

"Hai," Ryoku said, "We will try to visit, but you must remember, we are leaders, myself of Mizu no Kuni, Mei-chan as Mizukage, and Takeshi-kun as Anbu Commander of Kiri. We have people counting on us, but we will try to visit you."

"Don't worry Naruto-kun, my little bro will be here with you," Takeshi said, "I promise to write as often as I can, and maybe even have some of my men kidnap you sometime.."

"Ahem," the Hokage coughed.

"Ah...hehe...I'll notify you before I do, Hokage-sama?" Takeshi asked sheepishly.

"You had better, young man," both Hiruzen and Mei said at the same time, while Ryoku chuckled, earning him a glare from his wife.

"Hai Hokage-sama, Kaa-sama," Takeshi said.

"You too Ryo-kun," Mei said, shooting her husband another glare.

"Yes dear," Ryoku said.

"That goes for the five of you that were planning to as well," Mei said glaring at five of the Seven.

"Hai, Mizukage-sama," Kisame, Zabuza, Raiga, Yagura, and Shiki, said at the same time, Choujuro didn't have it in him to do such a thing, and Usagi really was more mature than the boys.

"That settles it then," Mei said then bent down to Naruto's level, "Give Baa-chan a hug, I won't be seeing you for a while."

"Hai," Naruto said and hugged her tightly, as tight as his four year old body could anyway.

"We'll try to see you soon gaki," Ryoku said as he messed up Naruto's hair, Takeshi following suit, then doing so to his younger brother too.

"Hands off the hair, nii-san," Shiro said batting his brother's hands away, and resigning himself to his fate when his parents smothered him. His brother silently laughed.

"We'll try and get ya when you're in the academy, along with anyone ya want ta take with ya," Yagura whispered to Naruto as he gave the kid a hug, "Just send us a message with the name."

"Hai," Naruto whispered back.

"If things are too tough for you and you need a break, just write us," Shiki said as he too did give the kid a hug.

"Good luck kid," Zabuza and Kisame said as they shook each of his hands, giving him a good squeeze, the kid knew enough to squeeze back. Raiga and Choujuro followed suit.

"When your reading skills are really good, I want you to read this," Usagi whispered as she hugged him and slipped an orange book under the sheets making sure Mei did not see it or anyone else for that matter, "Ask Shiro-sama any questions you might have."

Mei, Takeshi, and the Seven, left the room before Ryoku did..

"Kindly inform your student Jiraiya, that the next time I receive word that he peeped on my wife or any Kiri-kunoichi for that matter, I will declare war on Fire Country," Ryoku stated, waved goodbye to his son and great great grandson, then left the room.

"Well, that went well," Hiruzen noted, "Naruto-kun, you may leave as soon as you want to."


	41. Chapter 41

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-one**_

Naruto had opted to leave the hospital as soon as the Hokage told him that he could leave. Shiro gathered what belongings they had there, including the orange book Naruto had been given, though he did have to promise to return it to the kid, as well as help him learn to read and write asap.

When they finally returned to the clearing, Ryoku had already built the house, he also made the boundaries of the now joined properties more solid. The boundary wall was as solid as the walls of the village, but not as high, but just as thick. There were traps set up along the side and top of the walls, the ones on top would activate if anyone not keyed into the wards controlling the security features of the perimeter of the property jumped over the walls. The traps would also activate based on the threat level based on the chakra of the intruder just in case children were not harmed.

The house that was built, was quite large, even though the inhabitants were only two. It had a single master bedroom for Naruto's use, a smaller room for Shiro, and a few more guest rooms. There were a number of regular plumbing bathrooms, one indoor bath, and an outdoor bath complete with hot springs. There were two studies that could be used as offices for the two residents, a living room, a playroom, a dining room, a kitchen, a few more empty rooms, and two empty basements. The rooms that already had purposes were completely furnished.

Everything that had been bought by Shiro could also be found in the house. The clothes that were bought were put into closets, while Ryoku had added some creations of his own, ones that were spelled to fit the wearer, and grow with them as well. There were a few 'standard' spells on the clothes as well, like anti-stain, cleaning, instant dry, repair, and the like, the pockets of all the pants and shorts had expanding and space enlargement charms on them too, meaning there really wasn't a limit to what Naruto and Shiro could put into their pockets, of course they would have to be able to lift the things in and out.

"I think tou-san really outdid himself this time," Shiro said, as he and Naruto explored the house, taped to the front door was a map of the two storey house.

"Cool," Naruto said as he found the room labeled 'Master's Bedroom', it had a note taped to the door which read, 'Naruto's room'.

"I'll say," Shiro said from the door to the room, since Naruto had already gone in to check it out.

"How's your room Shiro-jiji?" Naruto asked as he jumped on the bed, Shiro didn't reprimand him since he was sure there were spells to make sure that the bed didn't break and was as comfortable as possible.

"Well, its smaller than your's," Shiro said, "Its alright in its own way, looks exactly like my old room back in Mizu."

"So...when are you gonna teach me that jutsu," Naruto asked, he must've really wanted to learn it to have remembered it.

"You...remembered," Shiro said, then chuckled finding it kind of funny.

"So are you?" Naruto asked, hoping that he would get to learn such a cool, for him, jutsu.

"Meh, sure," Shiro said, then walked away from the room and headed outside, while Naruto opted to act like a ninja and got onto the roof and jumped on Shiro, who managed to catch him half expecting it.

Shiro dropped Naruto on his ass, and created another two stumps, then showed Naruto the different handseals that shinobi used to use jutsu, as well as got him to meditate to call forth his chakra, and tell the difference between his chakra, his bijuu chakra, his magic, and the stuff that nature could give or lend him. He also explained what the different handseals were supposed to help him do, then explained how the Kuchiyose no Jutsu worked.

"Remember, think of the animal you want to summon, and other such criteria," Shiro instructed, then you just, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

A moment later the Toad Boss Gamabunta was standing under Shiro and Naruto, one moment they were on the ground several feet away from the house, and the next moment they were standing on a giant toad.

"Jiraiya! Why'd you summon me! You had better have a good reason!" Gamabunta said.

"Yo, Bunta," Shiro greeted the toad, "That teme's not here, I summoned you, or weren't you paying attention to the signature again."

"Shiro-sama! My apologies," Gamabunta said, he would have bowed but he knew better than to do that when he could feel two people on his head, "Should I transform?"

"Please do," Shiro said as he carried Naruto as he jumped off of the toad, he landed safely on the ground, while Naruto clung onto him for dear life, thinking that Shiro-jiji was crazy, "You can let go now, Naruto-kun."

"I thought I was gonna die!" Naruto said after he hyperventilated.

"Yo, who's the gaki?" Gamabunta, in half-toad half-human form, asked.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto said, "And I'm learning how to summon!"

"Eh, you? Aren't you a little small to be learning that?" Gamabunta asked.

"He's my great grand nephew," Shiro informed the toad.

"Oh...I guess that's that," Gamabunta said, "So...you need me for something or can I go?"

"Dismissed," Shiro said, Gamabunta simply vanished.

"Why wasn't there any smoke?" Naruto asked.

"There wasn't any need," Shiro said, "I explained to you the normal shinobi way, and our clan's way, so are you going to try or not? Remember it doesn't matter how much chakra and magic you use, just so long as you use both."

"Hai," Naruto said, and slowly performed the seals, "Kushiyose no Jutsu."

A moment after activating the jutsu, he found himself sitting on his ass on top of the biggest snake he had ever seen, Shiro was gawking at him from the ground.

"Who dared to summon me?" Manda, the Snake Boss, demanded.

"I did!" Naruto who slowly walked onto the snake's snout said.

"Yo," Shiro said as he landed on the same snout, "He really did."

"How?" Manda asked incredulously, not daring to demand such information.

"He's my great grand nephew," Shiro answered, "Takeshi's line obviously."

"Ah...I understand Shiro-sama," Manda said, "So what do I call you little master?"

"I'm Naruto," Naruto said, "You can call me that."

"Fishcake?" Manda said, "Funny name."

"Hey! I'm not a fishcake!" Naruto shouted, "What does my name mean though..."

"Fishcake," Manda supplied.

"Shiro-jiji, is that true?" Naruto asked.

"Eh...one of them," Shiro said, "It probably is supposed to mean maelstorm."

"Whoa, really, that's so cool!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Do you even know what that means, Naruto-sama?" Manda asked.

"No," Naruto said, "But its still cooler than food!"

"If you say so, little master," Manda said, "Do you need me for anything?"

"Not really," Naruto said, "You're my first summon!"

"Why not Gamabunta?" Manda asked.

"Shiro-jiji already summoned him," Naruto said, "I think snakes are cool, just like toads!"

"I like you little master, call me whenever you wish," Manda said, "But if not for fighting, you might want to think of me but looking human."

"But I don't know what you look like like that," Naruto said.

"Jump off, and I'll show you," Manda said.

"Shiro-jiji, I'm ready," Naruto said turning to Shiro, who picked him up and jumped off.

Once they landed, they were faced with Manda, who looked like Orochimaru, minus the violet markings, and had shoulder length hair which was tied in a kind of pony tail.

"You look like your other summoner," Shiro said.

"I thought you knew that I looked like this already, Shiro-sama," Manda said.

"Nope," Shiro said.

"Cool," Naruto said.

"Well, now you know what I look like Naruto-sama," Manda said, "Shall I leave now, or do you need me for something else?"

"Um...Dismissed," Naruto said.

"Hai," Manda said and faded away.

When Manda was away, and the duo had returned to the house, Naruto grew a little bit more curious.

"Who is Manda's other summoner?" Naruto asked.

"His name is Orochimaru," Shiro said, "He is a nuke-nin, a traitor to Konoha, Shiki-san, and my kaa-san don't like him all that much."

"Oh, so he's a bad man?" Naruto asked.

"Very," Shiro said, "Let's not talk about him anymore. The academy will be starting session soon, and you have already been enrolled."

"So, I get to be a ninja?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, unless you want to become something else," Shiro said.

"Ok, I wanna be a ninja, like you," Naruto said.

"Haha, very funny, Naruto-kun," Shiro said, "I am not a ninja."

"You're not? But you know 'bout chakra, and 'bout jutsu, and you can fight too," Naruto reasoned.

"I am not a ninja, but my parents are," Shiro said, "I just know how to fight."

"Oh, but I still wanna be a ninja," Naruto said with conviction.

"Then you will be a ninja," Shiro said, "After school, I will teach you some other things, alright?"

"Hai," Naruto said happily, "I'm gonna be the bestest ninja ever!"

"I'm sure you will, Naruto-kun," Shiro said.

#

Naruto had been in the academy for two months already, two months of blatant neglect and bullying by most of the faculty of the academy, anyone else would have given up on the ninja career path already, but not Naruto, and most especially not after he accidentally let slip how his teachers were sabotaging his education. The only reason why it wasn't obvious at first was because Shiro had a tendency to ask what he learned and retaught the kid those things, like a review class, in order for Naruto to get the material, to fully incorporate it into his self.

The day after Naruto let the news slip past his mouth, he was personally accompanied by his guardian to his class, not that Naruto knew about it, not even the Hokage suspected something was amiss that day. He spent the day under multilayer illusions, while at the same time thinking that maybe he could ask for an invisibility cloak from his father when he next got the chance. What he noticed in all of the classes sickened him. These people were sabotaging a student on the basis that he supposedly housed a demon. It was a deliberate attempt to weaken Naruto, well that would end at the end of the day, if it didn't, then there would be consequences.

At the end of the day, Shiro dropped his illusions and tapped Naruto on the shoulder to alert the young lad of his presence in the room.

"_Go home, stop for nothing and wait for me there, summon Manda if you want,_" Shiro said, his voice was barely even recognizable as a whisper, with his message delivered, he walked down the aisle between seats and approached the Chunin that was still there, obviously preparing to deliver a lecture to Naruto who had actually been paying attention to the entire lesson for the day, even when he was sent to the corner for doing nothing more than simple breathing loudly, which he was not, but considering they were shinobi it was a possible excuse.

"Excuse me," Shiro politely addressed the Chunin in charge of the class he had been watching.

"Hai, who are you?" the Chunin asked, wondering how Shiro had managed to get into the room without him noticing in the first place.

"I couldn't help but notice your blatant lack of acting like the professional you must pride yourself in being," Shiro calmly stated.

"Now see here," the Chunin said, "How dare you come in here and accuse me of such conduct."

"I observed the class for the duration of the entire day," Shiro informed the man, "I witnessed how you blatantly singled out one member of the class, and how a number of your fellows did the same. It is unbecoming of an educator to sabotage a member of the next generation."

"Tch, its just the demon brat," the Chunin said, not expecting Shiro to take offense, the next thing the Chunin knew he was cowering in the corner as an oppressive aura filled the room, and there was a concentrated dose of killing intent directed solely at him.

"You will apologize to me for calling my charge a 'demon brat'," Shiro stated, "Else I will be forced to show you exactly how much of a demon I can be."

"You're taking care of that filth!" the man spat at Shiro's feet, while still fearful for his life, he couldn't help but let out that final insult, "Then you're just as much a demon as it is, may you rot in hell."

"Very well then," Shiro said, "I will show you the demon I can become."

Shiro did not bother removing his bandages, he simply let out the power he had at his disposal, the safe amount he could use and control perfectly. It was still a staggering amout all the same, compared especially to anything the chunin had ever experienced, while not as oppressive as what the Kyuubi must have let lose during its attack, it was still frightening all the same, the raised killing intent didn't help matters either.

When the Shiro took a step forward the man pissed and shat his pants, then fainted all before Shiro could take a second step toward the man. Clamping down on his power, and bringing it all back into himself, he knelt beside the man, and placed a hand on the man's head.

"_Dream a little dream of me and my kingdom in the desert sands,_" Shiro whispered into the man's ear as his magic flowed from his hand into the man's memories, filling the man's dreams with nightmares that focused on the demon of the desert Shukaku.

With the punishment of the man done, Shiro walked out of the room only to stop as he was faced with none other than the Hokage.

"What happened now?" Hiruzen asked, there was a squad of Anbu behind the man.

"I'll be frank, your educators are biased assholes, that have for the past two months been sabotaging his early education," Shiro informed the man, "If it were not for me, he would be behind in his studies already. The class had a test today, and Naruto-kun's test paper was layered with multiple layered genjutsu of such a level that he is still unable to recognize and cancel. If I had not seen it with my own very eyes, I would not have stayed to confront that monstrosity you call a teacher. He cannot even tell the difference between a kunai and a storage scroll."

"I was unaware of this, but I believe it would have been better for all involved had you simply approached me about the issue, instead of taking matters into your own hands," Hiruzen said, "It is my duty as Hokage to ensure that all my forces are doing their jobs, just as it is my duty to discipline them, and you are a civilian, such disputes make it harder for me to do my job."

"If you want, I can take him back to Kiri with me, and he can learn how to be a silent assassin there rather than learn 'teamwork' here," Shiro said, "Fix your educational system lest I take Naruto out of the academy and teach him everything that he would be learning here, and then some."

"He wouldn't like that," Hiruzen said.

"I would personally prefer it to the treatment he would receive here," Shiro said.

"I'll do something about it," the Hokage said, "You have my word."

"Your word is shit in this situation, due to the politics involved," Shiro said, "There is also the pending arrival of the shit storm known as a treaty negotiations and signing with Kumo."

"How do you know about that?" the Hokage was surprised, it was a closely guarded village secret, kept away from the rest of the populace and meant as a surprise for when the delegate arrived.

"My spies in Kumo informed me of the pending arrival," Shiro said, "As for your educators, you might want to speak with them about keeping personal matters personal and out of the learning environment that is a classroom, lest I do something your Chunin will not live to regret."

"I won't bother asking if that is a threat," Hiruzen said, "For I already know that it is a promise."

"True," Shiro said.

"Where is Naruto-kun now?" the Hokage asked.

"I would like to presume that he is at home with his 'personal summon'," Shiro said.

"'Personal summon'?" the Hokage asked, "He can summon?"

"Yes," Shiro said, "It might surprise you which Boss it is."

"Boss?" Hiruzen asked, believing that the beginnings of a headache were comencing their arrival in his head.

"Oro-chan will be so pissed, when he finds out that the boss of his summons will side with another if they ever do meet on the field of battle," Shiro said.

"You have got to be kidding me," Hiruzen said, trying to figure out if the man was joking or not.

"I'm so serious, its scary," Shiro said, an attempt at humor that failed.

"I guess, I have no other choice but to believe you," Hiruzen said, "Now then, drop the whatever and let me pass, I have chunin to speak to about the difference between a kunai and a storage seal."

"Very well then," Shiro said, "Have a good day, I shall retire to my home now."

When Shiro finally left the building, the Hokage ordered his Anbu to fetch all the academy instructors, both those within and out of the building, as he needed to make sure that no more incidents such as the unfortunate one he was unable to prevent ever happened again. It was a good thing that such a practice was discovered before it was too late, and the Hokage was also determined to root out any other similar incidences, and students that suffered a similarly deprived fate.

"*"

When Shiro finally arrived at the house, he found Manda trying to teach Naruto the basics of the Snake Fist style. It was fun to watch the four year old try and emulate the actions of the Boss summon in human-hybrid form. Any form of summoning was a piece of cake for the descendants of Ryoku, even for Naruto. This made any jutsu that used any form of the summoning technique to be made easier to perform and master.

"Having fun Naruto-kun?" Shiro decided to ask once Manda noticed his presence and was about to tell Naruto.

"Ahh!" Naruto shouted in surprise, "Shiro-jiji, don't do that!"

"No way gaki," Shiro said, "Think of it as practice for when you're a shinobi, detecting the presence of others is a skill that a shinobi must learn. You must be fully aware of your surroundings, aware of your environment, as well as everything that is going on around you."

"How do I do that?" Naruto asked.

"There are many ways," Shiro said, "All seven of your senses are the tools in keeping tabs on your surroundings."

"Seven? But I thought there are only five," Naruto said.

"In our clan's case there are seven," Shiro informed the young child, "Sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, these are the five that most people have. Shinobi have six, as there is chakra sensing. While we have one more, magic sensing."

"I don't get it," Naruto said, "I mean, I didn't see you, I didn't hear you, I didn't smell you since you took a bath so you don't stink, I don't know how I could taste you that's a bit yuck, and I don't know how I could have felt you."

"May I help with his situational awareness training?" Manda asked Shiro.

"You may," Shiro said, "I will also be enlisting the aid of Inugami of the Inu/Dog clan with such lesson."

"I understand Shiro-sama," Manda said, "I shall inform him next time we cross paths."

"See that you do," Shiro said, "I have decided to turn one of the empty rooms into a summoning chamber."

"What's a summoning chamber?" Naruto asked.

"While it may suggest that we will perform our summoning there," Shiro explained, "It will be a room where the summons can simply appear in, not all summons can appear at seemingly random places whenever they please, you see..well the upper echelon can, but not always, and this way travel throughout the world will be a whole lot easier."

"How will it work Shiro-sama," Manda asked.

"Follow, and I shall show you something Tou-sama taught me," Shiro said, and walked into the house heading for one of the empty rooms, then changed course toward the second basement.

Once there, Naruto decided to voice a question that decided to bug him once he realized it was not just an empty room but an empty second basement.

"Why here?" Naruto asked.

"Well, it is an empty room," Shiro said, "Though technically called a basement. I decided to have the _thing_ here so that guests, if we ever have any, will not accidentally stumble upon it. Wouldn't want our secrets to be found out, now would we."

"I guess not," Naruto said, "So...how ya gonna do it jiji?"

"Watch and be amazed!" Shiro said dramatically as he pulled out a bucket or paint and a paint brush from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Whoa, where's those come from jiji?" Naruto asked.

"You know...I don't really know myself...in any case, they're here, so I'll use them," Shiro answered, then began to work some magic, for that was what his project was based around, magic.

Manda and Naruto stepped back into the mini-room that held the stairs, and watched as Shiro simply moved with a grace they didn't know he had, even Manda who had known him a long time wasn't aware of such skill.

He simply glided over the floor, the paintbrush moving here and there, occasionally dipping into the bucket which did not look like it would run out of paint any time soon, niether of the two members of the audience knew how it was possible, but each had an inkling. Another puzzling thing was that in some parts of what must have been an intricate and complex painting other colors were filling in the gaps. A little bit of brown here, a little bit of red there, some yellow, and so on and so forth. The lighting of the basement also seemed to flicker, not ominously, but as if it too was being affected by the magic being worked in the room. After one last and swift flicker, the lights on the ceiling vanished, being replaced by torches that formed from out of the walls, the fire floating above the torch or burner.

When the entire process was complete the room had transformed from a barren basement to a well lit chamber with two fireplaces and two pedestals with rolls of parchment sitting on them, accompanied by a bottle of ink and a quill each.

"I present to you," Shiro said as he threw the paintbrush and bucket into the fireplaces, "The Summoning Chamber...also known as the Floo Room."

"Uh.." Naruto raised his hand as if he were in class.

"Yes, Naruto-kun? No need to raise your hand, this isn't a classroom, this is home, ask away," Shiro said.

"What's 'Floo'?" Naruto asked.

"Floo is a means of transportation," Shiro explained, "To get from one place to another one must grab some special powder and call out the destination while throwing the powder into the flames of the fireplace."

"So...its magic...," Naruto surmised, what else could it be, "Just...weird."

"Yeah," Shiro admitted, "It is kind of weird...Manda kindly explain to whoever asks how to work the things, they should have formed themselves somewhere in your realms, each pair should have an instruction manual placed on a pedestal in front of them, along with the other two which will serve as a magical log of who came through the entrance and exits of the things, as well as a Floo directory with all the destination names."

"Hai, Shiro-sama," Manda said, "Should I leave? As it seems there is nothing more to be done today, and Naruto-sama might want to spend some time with you."

"Naruto-kun?" Shiro said.

"Can you take me to school tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"Me?" Manda asked, "May I, Shiro-sama?"

"I guess," Shiro said, "Just...try not to get caught or killed."

"Hai, Shiro-sama," Manda said, "I will be back tomorrow morning to escort you to school Naruto-sama."

Having said his piece, Manda faded back to his realm, to the territory of the Snakes, leaving Shiro and Naruto alone in the room.

"Does Mei-baa-chan, and Ryoku-oji-chan have a Floo too?" Naruto asked.

"I...well it looks like visiting Mizu no Kuni will be a lot easier now, huh," Shiro said, "Great thinking Naruto-kun, but before we do that, I will have to inform them of your idea, as well as the Hokage so that he doesn't worry."

"Hai," Naruto said, "When's dinner?"

"Let's go to the kitchen," Shiro said, leading his young charge to the kitchen that they may prepare for dinner.


	42. Chapter 42

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-two**_

A few weeks after the end of the career for one unfortunate chunin, who not only was reprimanded by the Hokage, but also by his fellow instructors, who were in turn reprimanded by the Hokage as well. The chunin were told to shape up, or they would be replaced by more competent and professional individuals that took their job at training the future generation more seriously. No one wanted to be out of a steady job that had very little risks, and a lot of perks, so they did as ordered and shaped up. Favoring not one student, sort of, and at the same time not bullying any of the students too much. They made their bullying attempts less obvious, and harder to prove. They were also more weary when before starting and ending a class, watching out for any sign of being spied upon by the elusive guardian of the one many of them still referred to as 'demon brat' when no one that didn't think of him as such was around.

Since Naruto didn't complain about any unfair treatment, Shiro didn't bother checking up on him at school again, trusting the little brat's word that everything was alright, even though it was only a half truth.

Naruto believed that so long as he learned, he would be alright, he would face these hardships head on, just like he did his last big challenge, that being the Kyuubi fiasco in his mindscape and soul room. He was not only being taught by Shiro, but also by Manda who had so far managed to accompany Naruto to school undetected, and Inugami who had also managed to escort the brat to school undetected, it was most likely due to his dog form that kept suspicion off of him.

He had yet to make any friends, that was the only problem for him when it came to school. The parents had told their children to stay away from him, or so he had heard. That was the only thing he complained to Shiro about. Shiro simply told him that he would eventually find friends, to give it time, someone was bound to come around.

With there being no school problems to worry about, Naruto's fears of not having friends held off for the time being, life at the Uzumaki household gained a kind of normal routine, one where Shiro seemed to want to actually cause a little mayhem, it was in the blood or so his father had told him, though he didn't really understand what the man had meant by that statement.

It was a Saturday morning that Shiro decided to follow that voice in his head telling him to cause some random chaos in the village. He didn't know why he listened, all he knew was that he told Naruto not to leave the grounds for that day, while he went out. Naruto didn't really seem to mind as he was busy trying his hand at painting, with Manda, Gamabunta, Katsuyu, and Inugami, watching over him, and helping him with his little projects, they were all in hybrid form of course as not to destroy the house, even though Ryoku had made sure that the house was equipped with space enlargement charms and the like.

Shiro donned some ninja gear, meaning a full black body suit that covered him from head to toe, even his fingers were covered in the material, his head covered by a hood type mask. Strapped to his back was a small backpack containing the supplies he believed he would need for his little adventure. Strapped to his thighs were pouches containing some other supplies, as were the pouches attached to his belt. The visor of his mask had a number of fucntions, like the ability to see in the dark, see body heat, and all those other nifty functions. The suit was covered in seals that allowed him to be almost perfectly stealthy. All his gear ran on magic, it would be draining his magical core every second he used the gear, but it would be worth it in the end, or so that little voice in his head claimed.

He had all sorts of gear sealed in scrolls in his backpack, powders in his pouches, and a few things his father had left in a blood sealed trunk in his room, in it were a number of things that he would have never thought his father would have had in the first place. While the man had a fun side, Shiro didn't know the extent of the man's idea of having fun. He now had a clue.

At first he planned on hitting the Hyuuga clan, but since next week the Kumo delegate would be arriving, he thought that those sticks in the mud could do without some added stress and security disruptions and the like, so Shiro moved on to his next target, the Inuzuka clan compound.

The suit may have made him invisible to the eye, but he was sure that the dogs would still be able to catch his scent, so what better way to negate such a skill than by dropping several dozen dung bombs right on top of them, along with some tear gas in each and every one of the homes of the clan. Having finished phase one of his plan, he teleported out of the compound and put up an illusion that allowed him to walk into a pet shop to purchase a large amount of cat food, the kind that once the bags were opened would draw nearly every cat from a one to two mile radius running in search of the source of the delicious scent. Teleporting and dropping the illusion, Shiro snuck the bags into the kennels and rooms of the Inuzuka clan, each one with a seal that would explode releasing the cat food contents, splattering all over where the bags were situated. The time they would blow was when the gas and the bombs were spent. Shiro got out of there as fast as possible while still keeping his stealth intact.

Two minutes after leaving the compound he was forced to dodge the mad cats that were rushing into the compound, there were just that many cats, he even spotted the one that Kiri referred to as _That_. Kiri's equivalent was a golfish that one of the elders of the Hoshigaki clan kept accidentally letting lose in the waters of the village, this particular goldfish had some ninja training as it would sometimes or usually transform into a shark to avoid capture, and on two separate occasions had evaded capture as a whale.

With phase one complete, it was time for phase two, it was time to hit the Sarutobi compound, while not as numerous as most of the other clans, there were still a few of them, the Hokage being the clan head. Rumor had it had Sarutobi Asuma was planning on joining the guardians of the Hi Daimyo, but that didn't really factor in with Shiro's plan, as he planned on hitting them with something that was t obe a little bit ironic. He planned on flinging shit at the members of the clan while henge'd into monkeys. It was childish, but it would get them to follow him in monkey form to phase three of his plan, which was flooding the primier fire clan of Konoha, the Uchiha clan district, they were that many.

Once in the middle of the district, he dropped a bomb, a literaly bomb, into a man hole, one which he opened quite easily even considering that he was pressed for time. With bomb ticking, he got the hell outta there, while shifting from invisible human form, to visible shit flinging monkey form, and proceeded to exit the district as he headed for the Nara clan compound and grounds to mess with their beloved rest.

But before he could escape any pursuing Uchiha or Sarutobi, he saw someone he didn't expect to ever see again. There was a previous Chunin exam that he had attended due to being the son of the Mizukage, whichever of the two it was, and he had met the youngest daughter of the Hi Daimyo, her name was Mikoto, and if the girl Shiro caught a glimpse of was indeed the girl, she had a lot of explaining to do, since Mizu no Kuni's court received word that she had been killed sometime after that Chunin exam.

He approached her from behind and spun her around, ditching his stealth and mischief making gear, replacing them with dark grey pants, boots, a red long sleeved shirt, and a white trench coat, he left the bandages though.

"Miko-chan, is that you?" he asked her.

"Sh-Shiro-kun? H-hai," she said, "W-what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that," Shiro said, "I thought you were dead...we received word from your father of your death shortly after you must have returned to Fire Country. What happened?"

"I...I really shouldn't..." she said, "You could get in trouble..."

"Tell me," Shiro pleaded, "Please...I thought you were dead for so long..."

"I..." she said, then pushed him away from her, "Please...please forget you say me...please...I don't want you hurt..."

"I can take care of myself you know," he said, "Please tell me..."

"I...not here," she said, "Wh-where can I meet you?"

"Hmm..." he thought for a bit, then decided to just give her a portkey, "Here, just 'Uzumaki', and you'll be brought to where we can talk...when you're ready of course...and not for a few hours...preferably tonight..." he sensed some Uchiha and Sarutobi heading in the direction he was currently in, "I've to...ah...gotta go!"

He transformed into a monkey and jumped away just before Uchiha Fugaku and two other Uchiha landed where he and Mikoto had been talking.

"Where did the monkey go, Mikoto," Fugaku demanded of his wife.

"I...I...I didn't see..." she said, being the wrong answer she received a slap strong enough to cause her to fall to the ground in pain.

"It couldn't have gone too far," Fugaku said, he knew that the monkey was no ordinary monkey, especially since it had managed to evade capture from the Sarutobi clan, as well as cause a flood to occur in the middle of the Uchiha district.

Shiro wasn't that far away, which allowed him to see his friend get slapped. If he were to give anyone a typical introduction of himself which included not only his name, but his likes, dislikes, and dreams, well one of his dislikes was hurting women without a good reason and out of battle situations. It was simply a no-no in his book.

Still in monkey form he turned around and headed back to face the Uchiha pricks, as he neared their position he flshed through several handseals, then when he was a few feet away from them, he let out a giant ball of fire.

'_Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!_' he thought, focusing on what he wanted to do, the flames were so hot that they were white, the Uchiha males would not have survived had they not performed the kawarimi with some nearby barrels, Fugaku not really caring about his wife switched with her.

Shiro caught the switch just in time to temporarily stop time, just enough to get her out of the flames and activate the portkey just as he reengaged time again. When the flame died down, there was a sizeable crater on the ground form by the flame, some of the ground was still in a molten state. The three Uchiha were so shocked at the intensity of the attack that they were unable to follow the monkey as he scurried out of there, and once he was far enough teleported all the way home.

He arrived at the exact same time as Mikoto had via the portkey. They were met at the front porch of the house, there was a front porch, by Naruto and the boss summons in hybrid form.

"Get her inside," Shiro said after shifted back into human form, "Manda, I need you to fetch the Hokage."

"Hai," all the summons sprung into action, Manda running at top speed in the direction of the Hokage Tower, Inugami, Katsuyu, and Gamabunta bringing Mikoto into the house and laying her the bed of one of the guest rooms of the house.

"Naruto-kun," Shiro said, "I need you to fetch some water from the kitchen and a glass, can you do that for me?"

"Hai," Naruto said, knowing not to argue or ask questions, the person Shiro had brought obviously didn't look well.

The Hokage arrived at the house a few minutes later, no Anbu with him since Manda had more or less kidnapped him from the Hokage Tower using one of the privileges a Boss Summon had, that being poofing almost anywhere they wanted. He put the Kage down, unbound and ungagged him, when he entered the room where Mikoto was on a bed sleeping, while Naruto sat on a chair beside her bed, ready to provide water if she woke up.

"Shiro, you had better have a good reason for having me kidnapped," Hiruzen said.

"Uchiha Mikoto is the youngest daughter of the Hi Daimyo," Shiro stated, "I don't have the full story yet...but I know she didn't leave her parents willingly."

"You do know that you are accusing one of Konoha's founding families of kidnapping the Daimyo's daughter, one that supposedly died a few years ago," Hiruzen said.

"I am well aware of that fact," Shiro said, "I am also well aware of the fact that Fugaku does not value her life, since he switched places with her after I attacked him with a Gokakyu no Jutsu. As for why I even attacked him, it was because I do not approve of harming women for no other reason than for simply making a mistake."

"Ugh..." Mikoto began to return to the land of the living, Naruto instantly had a glass of water in hand and helped her drink it, she really needed it as Shiro's flame really took out a lot of water from her body, "Where...where am I?"

"You're at mine and Naruto-kun's house," Shiro said.

"Shiro-kun? What am I doing here?" she asked him, not noticing the other people in the room.

"Can you please tell me what happened now?" Shiro asked.

"I...they can't find out..." she said, "Please...they can't find out...promise me they wont find out...promise me."

"Who are they?" Shiro asked, choosing to kneel beside the bed.

"The Uchiha elders and Fugaku," she said, "If they find out...tou-sama will be killed."

"I promise they wont find out," Shiro said, "Please..continue."

"They ambushed us on our way home, killing and replacing the guards...then before arriving at the capital...they grabbed me and told tou-sama that they would kill me if he didn't do as they told him to do," she said, "Fugaku later took me as his wife and killed his father shortly after in order for him to take the position of clan head...he also told me that if I tried to escape, he would have my father killed, and through our children the Uchiha would take control of Fire Country as was their right. There's a seal on my tou-san that will kill him...he doesn't know of course..."

"How did they manage to convince the other members of your family that you had died?" he asked her.

"They were all placed under a powerful genjutsu..." she said, "For the sake of my father and of my sons, I can't leave the Uchiha..."

"I see..." Shiro said.

"Mikoto-chan, is there anything else you can tell us," the Hokage decided to speak, "By your words the Uchiha have betrayed Konoha.."

"H-Hokage-sama, what are you doing here?" she desperately asked.

"Shiro had me kidnapped," the Hokage told her, "He believed that it was in the best interest of the village for me to be here, and I see why. Worry not, I will do all in my power to keep you and your father safe, your sons as well."

"Even with her word, you will not be able to move against the Uchiha without anymore proof," Manda decided to voice his opinion on the situation, "If the plot to control Fire Country is exposed to soon, they could activate the seal killing the Daimyo and taking control of the country due to the blood flowing through the veins of Itachi and Sasuke, both of whom are the only male heirs of the Daimyo that would be able to claim the throne. The other male heirs are out of the country most of the time."

"I will personally initiate an investigation into the matter," the Hokage said, "Can you lend me anyone Shiro?"

"I'll ask my father who of the bosses would be best suited to the task," Shiro said, "This will take a while won't it."

"It will, with so little to go by, the investigation which will have to be perfoemd as stealthily as possilbe will take some time, hopefully not to long," the Hokage said, "Of all the times for something like this to come up...next week the Kumo delegates are arriving for the treaty...the clan doesn't do anyting to the boys, do they?"

"No...my sons are the princes of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku treats them as sons," Mikoto said, "I'm...I'm the only one...he beats..."

"We'll figure out a way to get you out of this mess," Shiro promised her, "I promise I'll find a way to make things right."

"I'll help too!" Naruto said from the otherside of the bed.

"Who..?" Mikoto said, not really recognizing Naruto without his whisker marks which had disappered when he took down the Kyuubi, he wore an illusion whenever he left the grounds and entered the village.

"Naruto-kun," Shiro said, "I told you, Miko-chan, that you are where Naruto-kun and myself live."

"Oh, nice to meet you Naruto-kun," Mikoto said.

"Nice to meet you too," Naruto said, "So Shiro-jiji, whatcha want me ta do?"

"Keep an eye on Uchiha Sasuke, make sure that nothing bad happens to him," Shiro said, "Can you do that?"

"Hai," Naruto said.

"I know for a fact that Itachi is loyal to the village rather than to the clan," the Hokage said, "He has said as much in the past, I'll have him help in the investigation."

"I didn't know that," Mikoto siad.

"He knows how dangerous it would be to voice such thoughts while in the presence of another member of the Uchiha clan," the Hokage said.

"Looks like we'll have to return you to the Uchiha, Miko-chan," Shiro said, a little depressed, "I'd offer to kidnap you and send you off to Kiri, but I'm sure you wouldn't want that, and it would cause us more problems."

"I understand," Mikoto said, "I'll just claim that I managed a kawarimi or something...Fugaku will believe that."

"If he doesn't I can always exterminate the Uchiha clan," Shiro offered.

"Let's not get too hasty," the Hokage interjected, "Any action against that clan will only be taken after sufficient evidence has been collected, that and making sure Daimyo-sama is safe from harm from any form of seal, getting it off him will be a problem for I am sure that the Uchiha have a way of checking that it is still there or an alarm to inform them when it is being tampered."

"If worse comes to worst," Shiro said, "We can request aid from my father."

"I would like to avoid that as much as possible," the Hokage said, "Mikoto, I shall accompany you back to the Uchiha clan...Shiro, Naruto-kun, try and enjoy the rest of the day..."

Sometime after the Hokage and Mikoto left the grounds, Shiro decided to increase Naruto's training for the trouble that was sure to come.

"I will be increasing your training," Shiro said, "I hope you are ready."

"Hai," Naruto said, slipping once again into that state where he seemed more mature than he really was.


	43. Chapter 43

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-three**_

"Remember, to keep the Hyuuga heir within your sight at all times," Shiro reminded Naruto, while Shiro would be monitoring the Kumo head ninja, Naruto was to act as the Hyuuga heiress' secret undercover and not so experienced guard.

"Hai, hai, hai," Naruto said, "I don't see why I need ta do this..."

"It is your duty as a descendant of Toukou Ryoku to protect the Hyuuga from Kumo, it will also be your duty to protect a fellow citizen of Konoha once you become a shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato," Shiro told him.

"Huh? What does Ryoku-oji-chan have to do with this?" Naruto asked confused.

"He's the reason why the Hyuuga are in Konoha in the first place," Shiro explained, "He saved them from the shinobi clans of Kaminari no Kuni that wanted to integrate their kekkai genkai into their clans. Tou-sama promised to protect them, and by being of his blood, so shall we. Understand?"

"Hai," Naruto said, "I'll do my best to protect the Hyuuga-hime."

"That's a good boy, Naruto-kun," Shiro said, patting the child on the head affectionately, "Do your best, and if you get into a tight spot, don't forget that you can call for help from the summons."

"Hai," Naruto said, then headed out ahead of his guardian and great granduncle.

When Naruto was finally temporarily out of his hair, Ryoku appeared before his younger son, but not physically, but like Yoda and Ben Kenobi after they died.

"One of these days, you're gonna have to teach me how to do that," Shiro told his father.

"I already told you, figure it out on your own," Ryoku said, "I did."

"So...whatcha want this time?" Shiro asked, "Coz I gotta make sure that that head ninja doesn't do anything stupid."

"After the signing he will attempt to kidnap Hyuuga Hinata," Ryoku informed his son, "I am unsure how, but he will slip past your guarded gaze. Ensure that Naruto has what it takes to take this next step in his journey to power."

"Next step? What do you mean next step? I'm having him watch the heiress like a hawk," Shiro said.

"To protect those precious to him, he will have to eentually take a human life," Ryoku said, "I would rather he did so in a semi-controled environment, rather than out in the field, where a second's worth of hesitation could cost him his life."

"You expect him to kill the head ninja, don't you," Shiro said.

"Unfortunately I do," Ryoku said, "A lot of lives hang in the balance here, and Naruto-kun will have to make a decision, whether to save countless lives by taking one, or not taking that one life, and condemning countless lives."

"I'll speak to the kid about it," Shiro said, "I hope you know what you're talking about tou-san, I mean, you're really old and all that as it is..."

"I assure you, I know what I am doing...just make sure he fully understands the severity of the consequences of his actions," Ryoku said, "And one more thing.."

"What is it?" Shiro asked.

"Inform Naruto-kun, that when dealing with the Hyuuga it would be in his best interest to summon a member of the Shirotora/White Tiger summon clan," Ryoku said.

"Why that specific clan?" Shiro asked, "Is it because of your Byakko form?"

"It is," Ryoku said, "The Hyuuga of the present day would not recognize me, but they know and should remember Byakko, as would any enemy of the Hyuuga from Kumo. I have already informed Shirotora Byakko of our relationship with the Hyuuga. He will act accordingly."

"If you say so tou-san," Shiro said, "I hear and obey, anything else?"

"Your mother sends her love," Ryoku told his son before his image faded away, and he returned all his forms to focusing at the multiple tasks that he had to complete as Daimyo of Water Country.

"Damnit," Shiro said, "I am well aware that the shinobi profession will eventually lead an individual into a situation where he or she will either kill or be killed, I had hoped not to have Naruto-kun face such a situation so soon, especially after that kami-forsaken Kyuubi fiasco that nearly cost all of us our lives and a number of souls their existences..."

"**I never took you as a person that talked to himself,**" Shinigami said, his voice being heard from all around Shiro, "**The gaki will be fine...you want me to talk to him? I am the God of Death after all.**"

"Nah," Shiro said, "I'll do it, its my duty as his guardian and teacher anyway. But you can talk to him after I've said and done my part."

"**I'm elated at having your approval,**" Shinigami said, "**If Naruto-kun takes the life of your father's target, then I shall perosnally take this man's soul directly to hell.**"

"You too have grown attached to the boy, huh," Shiro noted.

"**Of course I have, who wouldn't?**" Shinigami stated, "**There's just something about him that wants you to be around him...I really can't explain it...**"

"Heh, are you growing soft old man?" Shiro teased.

"**Heh, be glad that you are your father's son, else I would not let such a taunt pass without exacting revenge,**" Shinigami said, then his presence, which Shiro had barely felt, faded from the vicinity.

"Petty teme," Shiro muttered under his breath, he was instantly hit on the head by a brick causing him to fall down, "Bloody bastard..."

"*"

While Shiro was having his conversation with the Shinigami, Naruto was busy trying to figure out a way to spy on Hyuuga Hinata, they didn't have school so following her from there was out of the question. He was mildly stumped, and when he was mildly stumped, he got slightly frustrated, and when he got slightly frustrated, he ended up entering hyperfocus mode, safe to say that Naruto had a mild case of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, but not all the time.

As he was making his way to the Hyuuga clan district, he realized that he really didn't know where it was, and he really wasn't all that proficient when it came to using magical illusions like Shiro-jiji. The henge which he could easily perform, no handseals needed, was out of the question as the Hyuuga would easily be able to detect him in that form. Since he needed help in his predicament, he decided to do what he had been reminded. He ducked into an alley and summoned Manda.

Which was a bad idea, since he had found a solution to his problem, he had lost a little bit of focus, he had forgotten to think of Manda in human form, and he was forced to unsummon the big ass snake just as soon as he realized that he was up in the air. He then resummoned his friend and subordinate right before he hit the ground.

"Quick, get us to the borders of the Hyuuga," Naruto ordered, he was in panic mode as he knew that the Anbu would be there in a matter of time, and no one needed to know that he could summon.

"Hai," Manda replied and teleported them out of the alley just as the Anbu teams arrived to investigate the disturbance.

They made it in record time, or they would have if someone was keeping score of such things, Naruto sure wasn't. They were perched on top of one of the roofs of the Hyuuga, and Naruto simply took his time trying to figure out where Hinata was located, while Manda pondered whether or not to ask Naruto why they were there in the first place.

"Ano...Naruto-sama...I was wondering..." Manda said.

"Yeah?" Naruto said.

"Why are we here?"

"I'm supposed to guard Hyuuga Hinata," Naruto said, "Help me find her would you."

"I don't know what she looks like," Manda admitted, "And don't say she's got white eyes, all Hyuuga have white eyes."

"Henge," Naruto said, then transformed into Hinata, "This is what she looks like," then he dropped the henge, when he was sure Manda would remember.

"Found her," Manda said, then pointed in the direction of the house in the middle of the whole district, "She appears to be waiting for someone by the gate of the main family's compound."

"You can see that far?" Naruto asked.

"Hai," Manda said, "All you need to do is push some chakra into your eyes and will yourself to be able to see farther and clearer, though it can cause tunnel vision, which is why it should only be used when not in a fight."

"I understand," Naruto said, and did as he had been told, and indeed he had located his charge.

"So..." Manda wondered, "What are we going to be doing?"

"Well...we're supposed to make sure that nothing bad happens to her...like get kidnapped or something," Naruto said, "Yes, I know what kidnapped means."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Manda said, a smirk barely being held back.

"Sure, you weren't," Naruto, catching the tell tale signs of a smirk being hidden, said, "I think we need to get closer..."

"You do know that magic can be used the same way as chakra right?" Manda asked before Naruto could leap away.

"Huh? Really?" Naruto asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well...I mean that you've mastered henge, so...if you switch from chakra to magic, you'll be able to actually transform into whatever you want, a corporeal transformation, not a simply chakra illusion," Manda said adopting a thinking pose, "Or at least that's what I remember Ryoku-sensei saying once..."

"Sen...sei?" Naruto asked.

"Hai, didn't Shiro-sama tell you?" Manda asked.

"Uh...hehe...I think I forgot.." Naruto said.

"Ryoku-sensei taught all of us summons, well us older ones anyway," Manda said, "He's the reason why there's chakra in the world...or rather in humans and animals...he's the real founder of the shinobi world."

"Seriously?" Naruto asked, "Why isn't that taught in school?"

"Because only us summons were gifted with such knowledge," Manda said, "Oh, and of course his family too, since well...you're his family."

"Ok," Naruto said, "So...magic instead of chakra...do I change the technique name?"

"I think it would be better if you didn't say the name of the technique out loud, cause that tells your opponent or whoever what you're planning on doing," Manda said.

"Oh...ok," Naruto said, "Kawarimi!"

He transformed himself into a black haired, white eyed, version of himself, complete with that freaky seal that he saw a Hyuuga had on his forehead once.

"Manda," Naruto said, "You too."

"I don't have magic," Manda said.

"Oh...you think I could tranform you?" Naruto asked.

"You could try, I guess," Manda said, not really caring about his safety, "But why did you saw Kawarimi?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

"You said Kawarimi before transforming," Manda said.

"Oh, that's cause magic switched places with chakra," Naruto said.

"Maybe you should stick to 'henge' or not say anything at all, until you find something cooler," Manda suggested.

"Eh...fine," Naruto said and simply poked Manda who transformed into a Hyuuga as well, "I think the only thing that changed was your eyes...and your teeth."

"So are you saying I look like I've got a stick up my ass?" Manda asked, shock and depression sinking in.

"No, no, no, not at all Manda," Naruto said, reassuring his subordinate that he didn't look like he had a permanent stick shoved so far up his ass that...nevermind.

"Yosh! Let us get closer that we may perform our youthful duty!" Manda suddenly shouted, fist in the air, "By the power of youth! I am..."

He was unable to finish his sentence due to Naruto changing what he looked like, since he noticed that he snake had a bowl hair cut.

"What was I about to say Naruto-sama?" Manda asked, looking more normal.

"You don't want to know," Naruto said, "And I think we better come up with pretend names."

"You mean aliases," Manda said.

"What's an alias?" Naruto asked.

"Its the proper name of pretend name," Manda said.

"Oh...so...since you're so smart, you think of a name," Naruto ordered.

"Hai," Manda said, and began to think...twenty-five minutes later he was still in his thinking pose.

"Nevermind," Naruto said after waiting for so long, "I've already come up with names. I'll be Haru, and you'll be Fuyu."

"Hai, Haru-sama!" Manda said happily.

"Ok...if anyone asks, just say that we're from a branch that was left in Kumo," Naruto intructed, "And that we're visiting to make sure that Kumo doesn't do anything against the clan. Got that?"

"Hai," Manda said.

Dropping down from the roofs they blended in with the Hyuuga that were mulling about, along with their looks their clothes transformed as well. None of the Hyuuga paid them any mind, it was only when they finally reached their destination that someone decided to ask them who they were.

"Who are you? We've never seen you around before," a Hyuuga guard asked them as they passed by the gate of the Main family compound.

"I'm Haru," Naruto introduced himself, then motioned towards Manda, "That's Fuyu. We're from Kaminari no Kuni. Anything else you want to know?"

"K-Kaminari no Kuni?" the guard said, clearly surprised, "There are still Hyuuga over there?"

"Of course there are," Naruto, who looked to be around twelve, said, the transformation also had the side effect of mingling with his kekkai genkais and matured him to double that age, making himself act more like a twenty year old than a four year old. Messing with a time related bloodline limit really does screw up a lot of natural things.

"Ano...H-Haru-sama..." Manda said, trying to get Naruto's attention, he had noticed that Naruto's acting skills were really good but it was really beginning to scare him, especially the way he acted. He acted like he was a member of the Hyuuga main house, it was terrifying. Even Orochimaru had at one time confessed to finding the Hyuuga main's attitude and general personality to be more than simply intimidating.

"What is it, Fuyu," Naruto said, "Can't you see I'm talking to this ignorant."

"I...my deepest and sincerest apologies Haru-sama," Manda said bowing low, "I-Its just...the mission..."

"So good of you to remind me," Naruto said, then returned his attention to the guard, but before he could speak time seemed to still and Shiro appeared before him as Ryoku had. Shiro had figured out how to do that Jedi life-Force trick.

"_Cool it worked,_" Shiro said, "_Listen Naruto-kun, it seems like your other special abilities have awakened...you've even managed to somewhat split yourself like tou-san, I'm impressed..but that's not why I'm contacting you in this manner. Tou-san contacted me after you left...there is something I have to tell you, so listen well,_" he paused, "_There will come a time when you will have to make a decision, whether to kill or not to kill, but remember that the purpose to kill, especially in battle depends on the situation. If you just want to do it, that's bad, but if you do it to protect someone that's good. Kindly remember that, that and its never easy, and once it becomes easy, once your conscience thinks that its okay, then its time to stop. Because when that happens, you will have turned into a monster, the likes of which would make the Kyuubi pale in comparison._"

"H-Hai," Naruto said, understanding what Shiro-jiji was saying, his advanced mental faculties able to process such deep thoughts, but only in this state, "Is that all?"

"_There is more,_" Shiro continued, "_I already told you how tou-sama protected the Hyuuga, and told them to head for Fire Country, what I didn't tell you was that he defended them as a White Tiger...tou-sama, told me to tell you that when dealing with the Hyuuga, and if you need to summon something, summon one of the Shirotora clan, the boss summon tou-san named Byakko. He is special in that he can change size, but has no human form, no matter how much magic you put into a technique, he will not transform. So enjoy being a Hyuuga, if anyone asks where you are, I'll say make something up. Find somewhere else to stay in the meantime._"

"Hai, Shiro-jiji," Naruto replied and time began to move forward again.

"Haru-sama...the mission..." Manda said, reminding Naruto that time was back to normal again.

"I'm here to see the hieress of the Konoha branch," Naruto stated.

"W-Who are you to say that?" the guard demanded, suddenly on guard, his byakugan was activated and yet he saw nothing wrong with the two in front of him, "Hey..you're not...you're real..._oh shit_..."

"Of course we are," Naruto said, "Now...would you kindly direct us to the heiress of the Konoha branch or will we have to search for her ourselves."

"Uhm...right this way, sir," the guard said and led them into the compound, and brought them to where Hinata was sitting, "Here she is...uhm...I'm kind of new at this...so..."

"A-ano..w-who are y-you?" Hinata asked as she noticed the arrival of Haru and Fuyu (shall be referred to as such in their Hyuuga forms).

"I am Hyuuga Haru, and this is my servant Fuyu," Haru introduced himself and knelt before her, "I was sent to Konoha to ensure your safety while the Kumo delegation is here."

"S-sent? B-by who?" she asked him meekly, a trait which was unbecoming of a Hyuuga heir, and something that the Elders of the clan frowned upon.

"By the promised protector of the Hyuuga and the master of Byakko," Haru replied, "If you do not believe me, I can summon Byakko's successor to the name, the Boss of the Shirotora summon clan."

Before Hinata could answer another Hyuuga arrived at the scene, and tried to attack Haru, but was blocked by Fuyu. It was Hyuuga Hiashi, Hinata's father and clan head.

"Who are you to be claiming such a thing, there are no Hyuuga in Kaminari no Kuni, which was the last place Byakko-sama was sighted," Hiashi said, "Show me your proof."

Haru flashed through an unfamiliar set of handseals, all of which did absolutely nothing, then slammed a palm on the ground, which caused a seal to quickly appear on the ground spidering away from the palm, and right where the palm used to be stood a full grown white tiger.

"Why have I been summoned?" Byakko (the summon) asked.

"This Hyuuga did believe my claim of being sent here by the Master of your predecessor," Haru explained, then shifted his attention to Hiashi, "Proof enough?"

"I believe you...but who are you?" Hiashi asked.

"I am Hyuuga Haru, clan head of the Kaminari branch," he reintroduced himself, "I was sent, for I am the most capable of my branch, along with my servant Fuyu."

"I was not aware that any Hyuuga remained in Kaminari no Kuni, would you kindly enlighten me, Haru-dono," Hiashi requested, and lead his fellow clan head to his office that they may discuss such sensitive matters.

"Fuyu, remain her and protect her in my stead," Haru instructed, "Keep out of sight, it would not do for our enemies to know she more than simply protected."

"_Hai_," Fuyu said and faded from view, it was the summons' unique way of teleportation, well unique in the sense that Ryoku had taught it to them. Haru had forgotten that he had removed their 'seals' from their foreheads before approaching the guard, due to seeing how a few of those that bore the symbol were treated.

When they finally reached the office, Hiashi sat on his office chair, while Haru took a seat opposite him.

"You said something about a mission, if my ears heard correctly," Hiashi said.

"I am tasked with protecting the heiress of the Konoha branch," Haru stated, "Fuyu is here to assist me with such a task."

"That's interesting, would it be possible for your to enlighten me as to why I have never heard of the Kaminari branch before?" Hiashi asked.

"We kept to ourselves, until recently," Haru said, memories began to flow into his head as if the words he was spouting were the truth, little did he know that it was his bloodlines working their magic, "We of the main family's heir of the once whole Hyuuga clan decided to stay and fight. Byakko-sama apparently didn't need our aid, and reprimanded us as did his master, he who developed the seal to protect all Hyuuga's eyes. He built for us, a small hidden village hidden deep within one of the lofty mountains of Kaminari no Kuni, that we may survive. We were the descendants of the first Hyuuga, if not by true blood, then by blood pact. We stayed and spied on Kumo, we decided to be the protectors of those that were able to escape."

"What do you mean by 'until recently'," Hiashi asked, craving to know more about this branch of the clan that was actually above his own family, "Also, why are you clan head?"

"When I said, until recently, I meant that the branch has lost a lot of members over the years," Haru explained, "We have been protecting your branch from Kumo's operatives, along with the other clans that wished the Hyuuga's bloodline to flow through their clan's veins as well. Many have lost their lives, and now, only a few of us remain, some of those are no longer fit to continue our branch, only myself and Fuyu are capable of such."

"What do you mean by no longer fit to continue?" Hiashi asked, desperate for answers.

"Taught to us by the one who taught the father of puppetry his art," Haru said, "The other members converted their bodies into puppets, dead in all senses of the word, save for their bodies continuing to exist and function, while I live with a curse, one of youth...while my family grew old, I remained as you see me, the nigh immortal scion of the line of the first Hyuuga, while at the same time being of the blood of the Tatsujin, the bane of our clan's existence."

"Either you speak in riddles, in half truths, or you are telling me that you are truly the grandson of the clan head that decided to flee...then what is your true purpose here," Hiashi asked.

"To protect your daughter from the Kumo-nin that have infiltrated this village," Haru replied.

"But why?" Hiashi asked.

"We swore to protect those that had gone to Hi no Kuni," Haru said, "I intend to keep that oath."

If Haru/Naruto were to have a blood test taken, it would be revealed that he did indeed have Hyuuga blood, the blood he claimed he was off, along with the blood that flowed through his real form's veins. He was a two in one person now, just as his great great grandfather had his many forms, Naruto now had two, his real and main or core one, and Hyuuga Haru.

"Then once this danger has passed...what will you do?" Hiashi asked.

"Then I shall return to Kaminari no Kuni," Haru stated.

"Why not stay here, send for the rest of your branch, the true main family of the Hyuuga...by doing so you could help me in what I have wanted to do for some time now," Hiashi admitted, if there was one person he believed was worthy of seeing his true self, it would be this man-child before him, the true head of the Hyuuga clan.

"That being?" Haru asked, intereted in knowing.

"The unification of the splintered Hyuuga clan," Hiashi admitted, "A few generations ago, after the clan arrived in Hi no Kuni, the clan elders grew proud and greedy, and so they modified the seal we were given...one that caused the clan to split into two, the main family and the branch or cadet family. If the true main family joins us here, then the clan would be forced to reunite...I am unable to do so myself due to a number of reasons which I shall not bore you with...but would it be possible for you to move here?"

"It would...but I would have to consult with my...other half about it first..." Haru said.

"Other half? You are married then?" Hiashi asked.

"I am not...but since you have told me your secret, I shall share with you mine," Haru said, "My curse is such...since I am one half of a single whole...a side effect of my other bloodlines."

"Other...then the part about being the descendant of the bane of the Hyuuga is true," Hiashi said.

"I will have to consult with my less mature half..." Haru said, "But I don't think it would be a good idea to tell you who exactly in Konoha that is."

"Your other half is in Konoha? Then why did you have to come here, and why not have your other half perform this duty?" Hiashi asked.

"Due to the fact, that my other half...lack that which makes me me," Haru said, "He lacks the activated blood of the Hyuuga, it is only in this form that such blood is activated."

"I..think I understand..." Hiashi said, "Moving on...what of my other daughter? Why not protect her as well?"

"Kumo knows that she will be heavily guarded, there is said to be a double agent within your branch, one or more who is or are working with Kumo...I will see about transfering the branch here...it seems that this separation has caused some cadet members to seek revenge again the main..." Haru analyzed the situation and noted.

"I guess, that's better than nothing.." Hiashi said, "By the way where are you planning on staying?"

"_Byakko has dismissed himself_...Fuyu and I shall be taking turns keeping watch over your daughter, no need to worry about where we shall be staying," Haru said, "It would better if you didn't know."

"Alright," Hiashi said.


	44. Chapter 44

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-four**_

"A-ano...H-Haru-sama.." Hinata said.

"Yes?" Haru said, appearing before her, in a kneeling position, "Is there something you wish of me?"

"I...Otou-san s-said that I can leave the compound as long as someone is with me, c-can you c-come with me?" she shyly asked.

"Inform your father of your decision," Haru said, and simply disappeared, more like turned himself invisible, such arts such as genjutsu and illusion magic was easier as a Hyuuga whose control of both energies was perfect.

After informing her father of her decision to leave the compound, Hinata left not only the compound but also the district for that matter. She had no visible escort, making her look like the perfect target of the Kumo delegation whose other mission was to secure an heir of the Hyuuga clan that they might make her a baby factory for the Byakugan. The Kumo-nin, especially the head ninja kept an eye on her the most as it was specifically his job to perform the kidnapping. Though he wondered why none of his informants were accompanying the girl, they were supposed to be her guard after all.

He had failed to notice Haru and Fuyu trailing her in the shadows, or rather hiding amongst the crowd of people mulling and walking about the village. Hinata knew they were there because they told her that they would be keeping an eye on her even if she couldn't see them. She tried locating them with her Byakugan but she never found either of them, when she called or whispered their names, they appeared beside her in an instant.

"What do we have here," the Kumo head ninja in charge of Kumo's part in the treaty formation and signing said as he stopped in front of Hinata, "A Hyuuga...if it weren't for the importance of the treaty, I would simply take you and get out of here."

"Giving out such a threat, here out in the open, have you no tact or sense of self preservation," Shiro appeared at the man's side, before Haru or Fuyu could move, "Had a Konoha-nin heard you, they might have taken offence and decided that Kumo was insincere."

"Are you threatening me?" Kumo-nin questioned Shiro, who did not have a forehead protector with the symbol of the leaf on it or any forehead protector for that matter.

"I am not threatening you," Shiro said, "I am merely stating a fact. Watch what you say, or next time, it may not be myself that you will be dealing with."

"Tch, whatever," the Kumo-nin said, then warned Hinata, "You shouldn't be out without your guard, next time, you might not be so lucky."

When the man was out of sight, Shiro vanished as well, then Haru phased into view positioning himself beside Hinata to make sure that the encounter didn't frighten her too much.

"That man, will be a lot of trouble," Haru stated, "But do not worry. I will protect you. I swear on my life."

"A-ano...y-you d-don't need to go that far...Haru-sama," Hinata said.

"But I do," Haru stated," I need to because I want to, you are family, a bit distantly related, but family none the less."

"If y-you're s-sure," she said, not really thinking that she was worth the effort, for a four year old to being thinking in such a manner, the Hyuuga clan must really be screwed in the head.

"I am," Haru said, "Now, do you wish to return to the compound or do you wish to walk around a little bit more?"

"I wish to w-walk a-around a bit more," she replied, and began to walk away in a random direction, she looked back to see if Haru would follow, but found him no longer visible to her eyes.

Haru had a feeling that she was actually looking for someone, who that someone was he wasn't very sure. But his gut was telling him that she was scouring the village for someone, why she was, he did not know. So he continued to follow her, watching her every move.

"Who are you looking for?" Fuyu popped out from wherever he had been hiding and asked.

"L-looking f-for?" she asked a little startled by his sudded appearance, "I..I..I'm not l-looking for a-anyone..."

"Are you sure, Hinata-hime?" Fuyu asked.

"I...I'm..sure," she said hesitating a little as she really did not enjoy lying to people.

"You don't seem to be so sure of yourself, Hinata-sama," Fuyu said.

"I'm...I'm s-sure," she said, trying to act a little bit more convincingly, no one believed it, even the slightly irritated Haru hiding directly behind her invisibly hiding in her shadow.

"Leave her be Fuyu," Haru said upon appearing behind the four year old, lucky for them no one was around to witness him rising out of the shadow.

"H-hai, Haru-sama," Fuyu said, then vanished from sight, unlike Haru, Fuyu was still himself, not at all affected by the transformation. But he was still greatly affected by the change in Haru, he was somehow truly forced to act as the servant of this supposedly fake clan head. But searching deep within his mind, into his memories he came upon something he had not expected, memories that he thought should not exist. Hyuuga Haru, while being Namikaze Naruto at the same time, was real. While his 'Fuyu' disguise was just that, Naruto had really become this Hyuuga that treated him as a servant, while technically he already was something like that to begin with, being Fuyu made it even more real. It was a rather new experience for the Boss Summon.

"While your personal matters and affairs are of no concern of ours, it would be best if you inform us of the true purpose of your wanting to leave the Hyuuga monitored district," Haru said, "How can we best protect you, if you chose not to share your objectives and purpose for this little walk in the village. If you are going to lie to us, you might as well do it right. Be more confident in yourself, if you are confident, then there will not be a need for Fuyu to try and coax such information from you."

"Hai..." she said, thinking that Haru was someone else looking down on her for her weakness.

"Maybe it would be best if you stayed at home while the Kumo delegation remains in Konoha," Haru stated, and was about to carry her back, when she stopped him.

"I...I'm l-looking f-for s-someone..." she admitted just as he was about to pick her up.

"And...? Shall we look for this someone?" Haru asked.

"P-please.." she said, a bit of pleading could be detected.

"What does this person look like, and why are we searching for him or her?" Haru asked.

"H-he h-has b-blonde hair and b-blue eyes...a-and s-six l-lines on h-his f-face..." she described a person Haru knew very very well, as well as he knew what the real back of his hand looked like.

"I know of the person of which you speak," Haru stated, "You will not find him within the walls of Konoha for the duration of the Kumo delegation's visit."

"Huh? W-Why?" she asked surprised that Haru knew of the boy she had a growing crush on.

"Does it really matter?" Haru asked.

"Yes it matters," she said, a sudden need to know boosted her confidence like a temporary upgrade.

"And why is that hime-san?" Haru asked.

"Because I want to make sure he's alright," she said, she had noticed the looks people sent his way and was worried for him as she didn't have class that day.

"He is fine hime-san," Haru assured her, "There is no need to worry about him."

"Why not?" she demanded, stomped her feet even for a more dramatic effect.

"His whereabouts and present status are of no concern of yours," Haru stated, "Now if there is nothing else to this little jaunt out in the village, it would be best that we take you home, where you will be best protected."

"No!" it was a surprising outburst, one which Haru nor Fuyu had expected, "I order you to tell me."

"Hime-san," Haru, voice devoid of emotion, said, "I am not one of those branded members of your branch that you can simply order around. I am the rightful head of the Hyuuga clan."

Instead of permitting her from saying anything, Fuyu simply knocked her out with a bit of poison, he was a snake after all. He then hefted her up, and waited for his orders.

"We take her back to the compound, and restrict her to her room," Haru said, "Once that objective has been accomplished, I want you to get Shiro-jiji over to the Hyuuga, I have some questions that need answering."

"At once, Haru-sama," Fuyu said and took to the roofs, Haru not far behind, none of the bystanders on the streets or the other shinobi that traveled by way of the roofs paid them any mind as they were Hyuuga.

When they arrived, they were not stopped by the guards, they simply walked in and headed for the young girl's room, and laid her on her bed. But when Fuyu was about to leave to fetch Shiro, Haru stopped him from leaving. He reversed the transformation, in order for Manda's and Shiro's relationship with one another would not be found out. It would be suspicious if a Hyuuga were to speak to Shiro as is Shiro were superior, as far as all of Konoha knew, the Hyuuga had sticks shoved so far up their asses that to show such respect would make the individual either truly strong or somebody of note. Something which Shiro could not afford to be noted as.

It took Manda to return with Shiro a few hours to get back, specifically it took until the second day of the Kumo delegation's stay in the village. They entered the girl's room undetected by any Hyuuga save for Haru. Once Manda had returned he was re-transformed into Fuyu, while Shiro kept his appearance.

"What's the matter?" Shiro asked, concerned for his charge.

"As I explained myself to Hiashi, the things I said had memories attached to them," Haru said, "My words were truth...how is that possible?"

"Let me consult with the higher powers," Shiro said, then mentally communicated with his father, a trick that Naruto/Haru was still unable to do as he didn't know that it was really possible, '_Tou-san, Naruto-kun has experienced something...odd._'

'_His bloodlines have mixed...the magic of the transformation as allowed him to create a semi-separate part of the whole that is himself. It is an ability which I also possess, one which you are aware of. From Ryuumusha to Keigo to Shinobu to Byakko...It is the same for Naruto-kun, save for the fact that his __alternate personality has a place in history. It is a somewhat bastardization of my own ability, as well as your own experience with time travel. He now exists in two separate times, his present four year old self, and his present twelve year old Hyuuga self. Not that complicated an experience or ability, I had wondered who of you would inherit something similar,_' Ryoku replied.

'_Well apparently, it skips generations,_' Shiro sarcastically said, '_So...do I have permission to tell him how special he is?_'

'_Of course you do, but in your explanation, I hope that you tell it to him in such a way that he doesn't think of it as too far fetched or too unbelievable,_'Ryoku said and disconnected himself from the conversation.

"Alright, now this isn't going to be easy for me to explain, since I don't have the ability set that you seem to possess," Shiro started out his explanation, "Tou-san, told me that you have two abilities that he has, think of it as having levels to our family's kekkai genkai. Just as the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan has levels, which you can tell by the number of tomoes, our kekkai genkai too has some form of levels of mastery or something like that."

"Then I have merely unlocked something," Haru stated.

"Yes," Shiro said, "You have unlocked the ability to be in more than one place at any given time, tou-san refers to it as two things, the first being multitasking. He has dubbed it as thus, for that is what you do, when you split yourself into two parts, you are essentially one mind and one soul in two bodies. The second thing he refers to it as is splitting the whole, I hope you get what that means."

"I do," Haru said.

"As for those memories you have," Shiro said, "They are real, those events really did happen. You forged your own past and present, making them real. One of the kekkai genkai we get from tou-san, apart from magic, is tha ability to manipulate time, not to the extent that he is able to, but we have some pull in what time does, affects, and the like. Do you understand?"

"Hai," Haru said, "I think so, anyway...so in a sense time will bend to our will up to a certain extent."

"Something like that," Shiro said, "You may not alter events that are solid fact, things such as Kyuubi's attack on this village, or your being born, or my becoming your other's guardian, but secret sects, organizations, clans, and whatever, so long as they are not that well known, can be forged, created."

"I get it," Haru said, "Will I retain everything once I revert to my other form?"

"Of course you will," Shiro said, "But these things will be burried deep within, unless you split yourself, or your original self reaches the age in which this form is in."

"I see," Haru said, "Then when the time comes I shall split myself...I also have another question."

"What is is?" Shiro said.

"The history of this form is that I am clan head of a Kaminari no Kuni branch of the Hyuuga clan, I am also somehow the son of the original heir of the Hyuuga, the Konoha branch's man family are the descendants of the younger brother of this form's father," Haru said, it was a rather confusing concept and story, "My question...well...I guess questions are, how is that possible, and can I send for the actually existing Kaminari branch to live her in Konoha?"

"To answer your second question, why not," Shiro said, "You are clan head of that branch after all, I suppose the members are either golems or something similar."

"A hybrid of golem and puppet, they are semi-self aware but will follow any orders of intructions I give them," Haru said, "That's more or less what the other members of the Kaminari branch are."

"How many are there?" Shiro asked.

"Around twenty-seven," Haru said, "Yes, twenty-seven, why?"

"Well, I was thinking, if you plan on having them come here...I was thinking that that branch would be housed separate from the Konoha branch, make the Konoha branch work for the privilege to be made whole," Shiro said, "I'll construct a compound for your lot in our property, since we're at the very edge of Konoha's limits, I can probably construct a sort of village extension there."

"That would be acceptable," Haru stated.

"You do know, that you really seem to be a different person," Shiro noted, "Well, if there isn't anything else, I best get back to monitoring that man."

"Nothing more," Haru stated, "See you when next I see you, great granduncle."

Their meeting with one another was during the wee hours of the morning, Shiro left just as the first rays of the sun rose above the horizon.

"Fuyu," Haru said.

"Hai, Haru-sama," Fuyu said.

"I'm sure your family should be missing you by now," Haru said, "I think it would be alright if I continued this mission on my own."

"As you wish," Fuyu said, "I'm sure that while they may be missing me, they are aware of the fact that I am on a mission...but if you insist I will happily go home..."

"See you when next I summon you then," Haru said and reverted Fuyu back to Manda, then watched as his subordinate, servant, and friend returned to the land of the Snake summon clan.

Left alone with Hinata, Haru decided that the girl would not be permitted out of the compound until the threat of Kumo was either gone, or she was somehow successfully kidnapped. Then an idea struck him, if somehow a kidnapping managed to take place, stopping the kidnapper could result in political problems arising. After thinking it through a little bit, he came up with a solution that would prove beneficial to Konoha in general, while at the same time halting any more possible attempts from Kumo. He would allow the kidnapping to occur, and would covertly tag along, he would send a message to his clansmen that they were to lie in wait within Kumo's walls for the arrival of the kidnapper, and they would retrieve the kidnapped princess and return her to Konoha. Of course he would have to inform Hiashi of his plan first. If such a thing were to happen, then Konoha could threaten Kumo with war for their deception, and such a threat was not to be taken lightly as Konoha was the strongest of the great Shinobi Villages, or so the world thought, not that it really mattered all that much, all that mattered was that they were strong, and it was where a lot of really well known legends were born.

With a plan in mind, he left the room where his charge was still sleeping in, and silently walked to where he believed Hiashi would be this early in the morning, and just as he predicted it Hiashi was in his office doing paperwork, a chore which was best accomplished before doing anything else, as leaving it alone would only cause it to accumulate.

"Is there something I can help you with, Haru-sama," Hiashi said, looking up from his paperwork.

"I have decided to alter my mission slightly," Haru said.

"Oh, which part?" Hiashi asked.

"I have decided to allow any kidnapper to take your daughter all the way to Kumo," Haru said, then stopped the man from going ballistic, "I have a good reason for this, that being it is the best way to protect the clan."

"What do you mean by that? Your reason better be more than satisfactory, clan head or not, that is my daughter's life you are playing with," Hiashi said.

"If the kidnapper is stopped within the borders of Fire Country, then Kumo could convincinly state that it was an unlawful act on their delegate, they could even threaten war, I won't get into all the details how this could happen, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Haru said, "If the kidnapper manages to make it to Kumo, then you, and by extension Konoha, may threaten war if she is not returned. Of course, my men will be waiting for her to get there, and will be returning with her here. I am moving my branch to Konoha."

"But how will Kumo not suspect Konoha if Hyuuga will be performing the rescue?" Hiashi asked.

"Don't worry about that," Haru said, "With what I have planned, Kumo will not know about the rescue, they will think that someone else got wind of their plan and staged a kidnapping of their own. When Kumo demands compensation for the loss of life within their village, Konoha will respond with denial about having a hand in the attack, which would be the truth as my branch and I are not of Konoha."

"But how will Konoha be able to be able to threaten Kumo?" Hiashi asked.

"There is sure to be some sort of mission log for the kidnapping," Haru stated, "I will retrieve this document, and leave a copy of it, there are sure to be those that would wish to politically harm their kage in that village...I will make it look as if that individual sent the document, as well as a note stating that the Hyuuga that was kidnapped was kidnapped again. Not only does Konoha gain some leverage over this other super power, but Kumo loses face in the shinobi community as well."

"I see...but what about the safety of my daughter?" Hiashi asked, referring to her treatment at the hands of her kidnapper.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Haru said, "I'll be following the teme all the way to Kumo."

"I'd really rather not have to do this," Hiashi said, "But I assume this is the best way to keep Kumo from attempting anything like this again, I will have to allow you to do this."

"Good," Haru said, "Then it would be best for you to assign more guards, specifically those you trust, with the safety of your younger daughter, as well as your wife."

"My wife died in childbirth," Hiashi informed him.

"Oh," Haru said, "Then I guess I will have to reprimand Fuyu on his mistake, though he did say that the woman he found fit the description of your late wife perfectly."

"That's impossible," Hiashi said, "I was there when my wife died."

"This bears investigating," Haru said, "I will look into this, it would not do for the visible clan head to be seen snooping around."

"I suppose so," Hiashi said, "I'll trust you on these matters."

"I assure you that I will ensure that your daughter will be relatively safe for the entire duration of her kidnapping, both of them," Haru said, then left the office, as he had some investigating to do.

All he knew, attack and jutsu wise, were the Hyuuga techniques, all of them, and what he had so far been taught by his teachers, the ones in the academy and the ones at home. Unfortunately the clone technique he knew couldn't be used in this situation. As he needed someone or something to substitute for him, he decided on the only thing he had left in his arsenal, summoning.

After reentering Hinata's room, he summoned a Shirotora cub and ordered it to guard Hinata, the girl heard the conversation and wondered how such a small and cute thing could possibly protect her. Then her thoughts drifted to what seemed like Haru's abandoning of her. She thought that he, like the rest of the clan, had given up on her and her worth.

Haru left without saying a word to Hinata, and discreetly proceeded to investigate the mystery of the woman that Fuyu had found. He had been informed as to the location of the woman, and decided that his investigation would better start there.


	45. Chapter 45

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-five**_

He realized as he approached the location that the only reason that Fuyu hadn't been spotted, stopped, or minded much, was due to the fact that he was an adult in all senses of the word, while he on the otherhand looked twelve. There was a differences, and the adults in the area didn't look like they would allow a child to enter the area, there was also the fact that only Hiashi and Hinata knew of his identity as the rightful head of the entire Hyuuga clan.

He needed an older and even more mature disguise, one with a lot more experience than this ageless twelve year old self, who while strong was only experienced in open combat and stealth. None of the experiences of this persona, of this form, of this body, had dealt with investigations, spying sure, but investigations and research weren't any of his present two forms strong suits. He needed something new, but at the same time he didn't think that simply making up the history of his new form would make it real, would change some vague and alterable part of the timeline, of the past.

He needed to find someone, someone, or some event in the past that he could use to his advantage. He needed something connected to history that he could use to make himself another persona, one that was not bound by any village, and one that was barely known, whose secrets or exploits were kept hidden and eventually forgotten, hidden away in some archive, but also nothing that has to do with Kaminri no Kuni, Mizu no Kuni, or Hi no Kuni.

He needed to do some research, and so he turned around and headed for the library, he needed to consult with the history books, and since there were so many Hyuuga getting into the library unaccosted would be easy. He did not bother asking for direction to the section he was looking for, the Hyuuga of Konoha did not ask for help. Not wanting to lose his semi-anonymity, he walked around the library browsing, but at the same time searching for the section he was looking for.

After a while he found himself in the back of the library, he finally found all the history books, and record books that the village had for public consumption. He also found himself face to face with his great great grandfather, Ryoku.

"_Greetings and good morning, Haru-kun,_" Ryoku greeted his descendant, Haru really was a Hyuuga in the sense that he didn't outwardly freak out, but on the inside Ryoku knew that the boy had felt his heart nearly have an attack, "_The Shirotora clan informed me of your abandonment of your charge, why is this so?_"

"I did not abandon her, per se, I simply decided to change tactics and plans," Haru stated, "I'm about to embarass Kumo, while at the same time bringing my Hyuuga to Konoha, as well as form another persona...but I don't know how to properly form the background information and history, therefore I have come here to perform some research."

"_What is your plan then, or do you not wish to share with one who has with such experience as I?_" Ryoku asked.

"I plan on allowing a kidnapping to take place, one which will not be stopped," Haru stated, "The girl will be taken all the way to Kumo, where I and my Hyuuga branch will kidnap her again, while framing Kumo and taking the blame away from Konoha. But something else has come up, and I would like to implement it into my altered plan."

"_What has come up?_" Ryoku asked.

"Fuyu discovered that Hiashi-san's wife is alive," Haru said.

"_Impossible, she's dead...I was sure of it..._" Ryoku said, surprised about this new development, "_First the Uchiha with their plot...and now this...how far have the mighty fallen..._"

"Are you saying that you were behind her supposed death?" Haru said, his voice devoid of all emotion.

"_That is not what I am saying,_" Ryoku said, "_You are already aware of my ability to not only influence time, but to alter it, change it, direct it, and so on. That means that I can see all times, all events...but it looks like this event was something I had overlooked. No one is perfect. Had I been aware of it, I would have helped the situation. As of now, it is in your hands. Do you need any help?_"

"I do," Haru said, "I need to know if there is a clan in existence that are known for their investigative skills."

"_There are plenty of those, but what I believe you want is a clan that is either thougtht of as extinct or one that is not only looked down upon but is also disgraced,_" Ryoku said, "_As I believe that is the case, I know of two possible clans you can head, none of them are exactly alive today, none that can claim the headship that is._"

"Would you mind sharing such information with me?" Haru asked.

"_The first clan is the Bunshisetsu clan,_" Ryoku said, "_They have a kekkai gekai which allows them __to...well move really fast, the extent of which is that they were able to move even their molecules to such an extent that they would be able to walk through solid objects as if it weren't there. They were wiped out before the formal proclamation of the unification of the shinobi clans of Tsuchi no Kuni for the simply fact that they were in charge of investigating the intentions of the others that were joining the alliance that became what is now known as Iwa. A number of their members had uncovered plots that if implemented would have doomed the alliance and brought the nation to war again. They had managed to inform the leaders of the alliance before the plans could be implemented, but they were so spread out that those that they had ratted out decided to end their existence._"

"What is the second clan?" Haru asked, he was taking down notes in a notepad that had appeared in his hand, he believed that his ancestor was the one to provide it and the pen for him.

"_The second clan had the ability to manipulate luck, both the good and the bad,_" Ryoku said, "_This clan is the Gouin clan, they were disgraced when the Bunshisetsu revealed their plans of using their karmic influence and manipulation to take over the ruling and governing of Iwa once the actual village was established. The Gouin clan head must possess the ability to manipulate both good and bad luck, most of the members that are alive today are unable to influence even a little bit of luck, but they are constantly subjected to bouts of bad luck due to their planned abuse of their powers._"

"Does the Gouin clan have any interaction with Iwa?" Haru asked.

"_Some members of the clan married out of the clan, and so there are those members that live their lives as members of the civilian populace of Iwa, while there are those others that live in the clan's ancient stronghold, their own hidden village, like the one your Hyuuga branch have in Kaminari no Kuni,_" Ryoku replied, "_Is there anything else you wish to ask?_"

"Would it be possible for one person to have..." Haru began to say then remembered his own state of being, "Let me change my question, how would it be possible for one person to have the blood of those two clans to flow through their veins, if both the special genetic abilities have been more or less lost."

"_I have a method, but your new self would have to ingest about two tea cups worth of blood,_" Ryoku said, then explained what he meant, "_The blood that I would be serving this new form of yours would be the blood of the ancestors of the two clans, back when their kekkai genkai were still forming, the basics of the bloodlines. Since we are an odd family, the blood infusion can be done quicker if the blood is drank instead of having it pumped into the system. Would you be amendable to this course of action?_"

"What could I possibly say to make my story feasible and believeable?" Haru asked, "Was I experimented on at birth, or was I the child of star crossed lovers?"

"_I would suggest going with the story that you were an experiment that escaped,_" Ryoku said, "_You __were a child a bastard child of the Bunshisetsu clan head's second son and the son of the Gouin head's eldest and only daughter. Of course in the course of history the records of these two individuals were lost, meaning you don't have to worry about a paternity or maternity test to confirm who you will be saying you are. They were both disgraces to both of their clans, but your mother being of the Gouin, they were able to keep you and experiment on you. The elders of the Gouin clan, the corrupt ones, sanctioned experiments to be conducted on you, chakra enhancement, strength, everything, a complete overhaul of the human body. Your tormentors were also tasked in preparing you for when they needed a strong arm in their quest of taking over Iwa. You knew what they were up to as a number of them bragged about your future purpose. You were forced through such torment, as the experiments were nothing but pain and suffering of which you would not wish even on your worst enemy. You escaped right before the clan's plans were discovered, therefore the Bunshisetsu clan never knew of your existence._"

"That's a rather elaborate story," Haru noted, "Anything else? How do I become the clan head of both the extinct and almost extinct clans?"

"_Along with the enhancements, the people in charge of your upgrading and training also forced your body and mind to age faster than normal, which is how you actually able to escape. Your powers had matured to the point of total mastery,_" Ryoku continued filling Haru with memories of his new persona's life, he also watched as a transformation began to take place, "_Since you were aware of your parentage, you believed that it would be possible join up with the Bunshisetsu clan, but before you could speak with the clan head, the head family was attacked and killed by members of a mixture of clans that did not appreciate their plans being interrupted and revealed. You decided then and there to try and rescue as many of your father's family as possible. Whenever possible you switched places with a clan member and faked their death. Since most of them were badly injured, you had to take care of each one of them, this made it impossible to save more than twenty-seven members of the once great clan. These members that you managed to rescue then elected you as leader and clan head, and sometime later you formed an alliance with Hyuuga Haru of Kaminari no Kuni._"

"I see," Haru said, then noticed that he had transformed, no longer was he Haru, he was surely not Naruto, he was someone else, someone older, "I've changed...but who am I...I need an identity...a name."

Haru, who needed a new name to associate with his new form, had shoulder length snow white hair, was around five foot seven, his left eye was golden, while his right was dark brown. He now had a dark blue semi-liquid armor plated flak jacket, over a dark green single long sleeved shirt. Serving as his left sleeve he had bandages wrapped around the arm, they were dyed with what looked to be dried blood, Ryoku could see that it was literally covered in seals, blood was merely the link. To finish off his look, he had black cargo pants, ninja sandals, a blank forehead protector.

"_Interesting arm you have there,_" Ryoku noted, after realizing why the arm was that way, "_Did you intentionally do that?_"

"No...do you know why its like that," Haru said.

"_Its the manifestation of the true activation of your bloodline limits, the ones you got from me. You apparently met up with me since you were aware that I am a fuinjutsu master. Its similar to Shiro-kun's bandages, in that it holds back your power, like a limiter,_" Ryoku said, "_To remove it...you would have to say some sort of deactivation code phrase...whatever it is. Would you allow me to name this form?_"

"Go ahead," Haru said as he hadn't thought of a name for his new self yet.

"_Seigen, Sakujo Seigen,_" Ryoku ordained, "_You are the clan head of both the Bunshisetsu and Gouin clans, possessing the highest level of mastery over both clan's kekkai genkai, a deadly combination._"

"How did I gain the headship of the Gouin clan?" Seigen (in this form) asked.

"_Ah, yes, almost forgot that,_" Ryoku said, "_When your Bunshisetsu clan members were well enough to fend for themselves, meaning they were back to fighting condition, you decided to move from the camp that you had set up, and search for a more suitable place to hide from those that may still wish to do all of you harm. One day, you accidentally chanced upon a hidden village that was being attacked by what looked to be bandits at first glance, but taking another look you recognized them as nuke-nin via the telltale slash mark on their forehead protectors, you recognized some of them as members of clans that had attacked your Bunshisetsu clansmen. Without really thinking of the consequences you joined the fray and won by reversing the luck of the attackers with that of the defenders. Those already loyal to you were aware of your full powers as you had informed them of it. The defenders had gone against their very own clan and sided with the alliance, which was why those deserters were attacking them. After defending them, you were recognized as their leader as you had reversed their curse._"

"So, what is my relationship with those members in Iwa?" Seigen asked.

"_They know of you, but whether or not they would truly swear loyalty to you in order to once again belong to a clan, has yet to be seen or decided, they remain in Iwa while you have two clans coexisting with one another to the point that you chose to unite the two clans into one, that being the Sakujo clan,_" Ryoku said, "_Of the fifty-four members that swore loyalty to you, and voted you as their clan head, there are now slightly more than double that total number. They all know that you have gone into Konoha to scope out the place for the possibility of either joining the military force of Konoha or simply having a more permanent and safe place to live in. Iwa being out of the question since times have changed and your members are unsure whether or not the village can be trusted. Your decision to __move to Konoha was influenced by your friend Hyuuga Haru, who has family in Konoha._"

"Where do the Namikaze, Jikoku, and Toukou, fit in all this?" Seigen asked.

"_Mutual ancestry, well more like the bloodlines can be traced back to Takeshi, and through him, me,_" Ryoku said, "_Shiro is more controlled, calm, reserved, patient, and organized, as compared to his older twim brother, so there are no worries about him being some sort of great great something other than being your great granduncle._"

"Ok, I think I've got everything, even the memories, they're all here, unless I'm forgetting something," Seigen said.

"_If anything comes up, I'm sure you'll be able to come up with some sort of solution,_" Ryoku said, "_You might want to try and learn Kage Bushin, as that is the basis for your ability to split yourself into three now_."

"Thanks for the help Ryoku-oji-chan," Seigen said, and bowed to his honored ancestor who faded from view moments later.

With most of what he needed already in his possession, he decided to snoop around the library some more, creating a bushin of Haru just in case. He found some jutsu that looked interesting, and so decided to study them while he looked for a scroll about Kage Bushin no Jutsu. By the time dinner rolled around he had yet to find the advised jutsu. He did find all sorts of other bushin, reverting to Haru he had managed to master them, reverting back to Seigen he could still do them. He even tried it in his original form, safe to say that was a bad idea as he had been thrown out of the library. Once outside he transformed back into Seigen.

As Seigen, the reason why he had his left arm bandanged was due to all his other kekkai genkais being permanently activated in this form. The Bunshisetsu and Gouin ones were always activated, which was why his overwhelming chakra and magic stores had to be sealed away, as well as the higher tiers of his time manipulation powers.

Haru sported no such things as the Byakugan not permanently activated, and his original Naruto form would not have a need for seals until he turned twelve when the bloodlines would become active and would need to be suppressed, or held back.

Seigen noticed that all of his forms were close quarters fighters, all of his attacks were such. He realized that perhaps it was time to increase his already impressive jutsu set, though his original form's abyssmal chakra control rendered a lot of the attacks as inadvisable during combat until it grew more refined.

With nothing else to do, and with a growling stomach, Seigen went to one of his favorite places in all of Konoha, the Ichiraku Ramen establishment. As he entered and took a seat the owners of the stand treated him just like any other customer. It was something which all of his selves were not used to, especially from these people.

He ordered and ate in silence, mulling over his feelings about such an experience. When it came time to pay, he was almost found out, since he had forgotten to change the form of his wallet, one which had been given to him by Shiro at the very stand itself.

"I never thought, I'd see another one," Teuchi said as he saw Seigen's wallet, "I was told that it was one of a kind, where'd you get yours."

"A friend of mine lent it to me," Seigen replied, and handed over what he owed the ramen chef.

"Have you seen a little blonde boy with some scar like birthmarks on his face?" Teuchi decided to ask.

"Hai," Seigen replied, "He is the friend I was talking about."

"I haven't seen him today or yesterday," Teuchi said, "When did you see him last?"

"A couple minutes ago at the library," Seigen said, "He was thrown out for some reason."

"Oh...wait...the library?" Teuchi asked, his suspicions returning, "What was he doing in a library?"

"Oh...I guess you could say it was my fault," Seigen said, "I told him about this jutsu, and told him I learnt it from a scroll in a library."

"Oh..." Teuchi said.

"I know you're a bit worried about him," Seigen said, "But I assure you he is fine, he has a guardian now, family, and friends, though not many people know that. The Hokage knows most of it, but not all."

"How do you know about this secret then, and why are you telling me?" Teuchi asked.

"You're his friend, why wouldn't I share such a secret with someone that obviously cares for him," Seigen said, "Do not mention what I have shared with you, and by the way, I'm Seigen."

"Nice to meet you," Teuchi said, and shook his hand, "When you see Naruto next, tell him that his first bowl next time is free."

"I'll tell him," Seigen said, then left the place, heading in the direction of the one place he supposed information on such a jutsu would be found. The Hokage Tower. If there was one place something like Kage Bushin would be found, it would have to be there. The Hokage was sure to keep a copy of all the jutsu of the village in his office, and Seigen was really experienced when it came to infiltrating such places, not just him, but Haru, and Naruto as well. Especially Naruto.

Unlike in his original form, where he would resort to using the vents, and the like to get into the building, as Seigen, all he needed to do was move really fast, and he was in. Locked doors were no problem, he simply walked through the door, or rather moved all his molecules through the spaces between the molecules of the door.

Once inside the Hokage's office, he looked through all the files that he could find, even the ones kept in the safes located behind the portraits of the past and present Hokage. He deliberatly didn't pay much attention to the large scroll left out in the open. Three hours of ruffling through documents, scrolls, files, folders, and a host of other things, he decided that maybe the scroll would be worth looking into.

As soon as he unraveled the scroll he forced himself not to attempt to kill himself. Sometimes such things really are kept out in the open. He really wanted to throttle himself, so he quickly memorized the contents of the scroll, going so far as to making a copy of the thing. An entire kinjutsu arsenal added to his already impressive one. As soon as he mastered the Kage Bushin, he would strangle one to death.

It was four thirty in the morning when he finally finished copying down the extensive contents of the scroll. He left just before the Hokage arrived, making sure that everything was where he found them, including the scroll. He did take an orange book from the Sandaime's safe for future blackmail material though.

Once out of there, he sealed everything into a storage scroll, and reverted back to his original form, and ran all the way home, scroll in one hand, and ended up sleeping in his own house.

Naruto woke up to the sound of Shiro making breakfast, as well as the sounds of a number of poofs, signalling the arrival of summons around the property. He quickly perofmed his morning rituals, and when he was ready, he walked downstairs and entered the kitchen just as Shiro finished cooking.

"Good afternoon," Shiro greeted his young charge, "Pancakes?"

"Sure," Naruto said, "Is it really afternoon?"

"Yep," Shiro replied and handed Naruto a stacked plate of pancakes.

"Then why are we having breakfast?" Naruto asked.

"Cause...I woke up probably an hour before you did," Shiro said, "The most important meal of the day is breakfast after all."

"If you say so," Naruto said, and began to dig in, as Shiro threw dishes with food on them at the new arrivals that caught their plates and sat wherever they could, the summons ranged from Bosses to ones about their animal form sizes.

"Eat up! You'll all need your strength!" Shiro suddenly shouted, right before a kitchen sink fell on his head as he was trying to reach for something under said sink. Accidents happen, even to the best of them.

"Does that include me?" Naruto asked.

"Nope," Shiro said, "We're building the village extension, while the Kumo delegation are stuck in a conference room with Hiruzen."

"You might want to make more than one compound in the extension," Naruto said.

"Why?" Shiro asked.

"I've got..." he counted with his fingers, then continued, "I've got two to three clans coming to Konoha."

"Seriously?" Shiro asked, "Which ones?"

"Aside from the Hyuuga, which you know already," Naruto said, "There's also the Bunshisetsu and Gouin, that united to form the Sakujo."

"Alright," Shiro said, then whipped out the plans for the village extension, it was more of a residential district than anything else. He edited it to have more smaller compounds aside from the houses that would litter it, "I've altered the plans, and so hopefully we will be done by the time your guys get here."

"Who's watching the Kumo delegates now?" Naruto asked.

"Well, since you decided to change plans, no one is," Shiro said.

"Oh," Naruto said, "Well, looks like I gots to go," he had finished his pancakes and an assortment of other foods laid out before him.

Once he left the house we walked a couple of meters away to train. He needed to get the Kage Bushin down, in his original state, he had the chakra for it as the scroll said that not that much control was needed for the jutsu to work.

It took him most of the afternoon, but in the end he mastered its use, with such a success, he decided to see how exactly it would serve as a basis for the splitting of the self thing that he wanted to do. So he transofrmed into Seigen, who was the adult of his three forms, as well as the oldest of the three forms, physically and mentally.

It didn't take long before Seigen was throttling one of his Kage Bushin, after the first one 'died' he created another, killed that one, then another, and another, until his left arm began to hurt, as he had used up more chakra then necessary to sate his frustration. When he was done going through the memories of throttling himself, he did the only thing he could think of doing. He slumped to the ground, and fainted from exhaustion, only to be woken up by his great great grandfather who kicked him in the groin to get his undivided attention.

"Yes, what is it?" Seigen asked in a rather high pitched voice.

"_Really, throttling your clones to the point of exhaustion. Had I not witnessed such a feat in the past, I'd think you an idiot,_" Ryoku said, holding back a bit of laughter, "_Try Kage Bushin with magic, coupled with a magical transformation, and the will and belief that you are creating not, clones, but more of yourself. That is the best advice I can give you at this point in time. Once you get that down, you might like to try and get used to being in two bodies before becoming three._"

After that Ryoku resigned himself to watching the progress of his descendant.


	46. Chapter 46

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-six**_

The countdown for the kidnapping was about to end, there was only around an hour left before the kidnapping was scheduled to take place, or so Seigen had discovered, through Seigen Haru knew about the time frame, and was able to inform Hiashi. While Naruto remained with Shiro, training when not doing anything else. He had mastered the technique, and it had only taken three days of not showing up at the Hyuuga district. Of course he had to put the investigation on Hyuuga Ran, Hisahi's wife, on hold.

Haru had dismissed the Shirotora summon a few minutes ago leaving Hinata truly unprotected from any kidnapping attempt. Just like clockwork, a Hyuuga cadet branch member entered the heiress' room and knocked her out, before handing her over to a Kumo-nin who promptly killed the Hyuuga, then destroyed the body to leave no evidence of his being there. He had failed to notice the presence of Haru who was hiding under a magical illusion, the only kind that he knew how to perfectly perform.

As soon as Haru left the village in pursuit of the Kumo-nin, Seigen appeared before Hiashi and informed him of the beginning of the operation, as well as introducing himself as a friend of Haru's. He also informed Hiashi that he was the one investigating what really happened to his wife, as well as his plan to get her out of Konoha for a while, since last he saw her she didn't look to well.

Hiashi then informed him that Ran had been the reason why he wanted to unite the clan. She was a cadet branch member, and therefore supposed to be below his station. But he insisted on marrying her.

Seigen theorized that those that opposed the marriage had done some illegal things to get her into their clutches and had been keeping her alive to torture her for influencing Hiashi, or seducing him away from main branch family members that would have made their children more powerful.

Hiashi then requested Seigen to get her out of Konoha if that were the case, as she could possibly be used sa blackmail against him. Seigen agreed and took her as soon as he was able, and even brought her to him to confirm her identity which he did, and reluctantly allowed Seigen to 'kidnap' her.

Both kidnappings had occurred when the village was enjoying the celebration of the treaty being signed. It was a good excuse for losening security around the village. The guards never noticed two groups of kidnappers exiting the village.

Hiashi informed no one of the events he was aware of, it would take all of his self control and acting skills to convince everyone that he was just as surprised and infuriated about the loss of his daughter whom they would be unable to retrieve due to lack of evidence of any kind, and the treaty being in place. Of course someone had decided to inform the Hokage that the heiress was protected from harm even though she had been kidnapped. Shiro was the one to inform the aged kage, which caused the Kage to relax a little.

The Hokage had decided against informin the general populace about the kidnapping, the one he knew about as the one concerning Hyuuga Ran was not told to him, and only Hiashi and those that took her from him in the first place knew about it, along with Uzumaki Naruto.

#

They had blended in perfectly with the civilian populace of Kumogakure no Sato. Both the Kaminari no Hyuuga and the Sakujo clans were in position and ready for action as soon as the command or signal was given. The kidnapping would take place the night that the kidnap victim was presented to the Sandaime Raikage. The Sakujo clansmen had already infiltrated the mission archives and taken the documents that they were after, as well as got on the good side of some of the village council members that held grudges against the Sandaime Raikage. Everything was going according to plan, a ransom note was also prepared, the ransom being the total unonditional surrender of Kumo to the kidnappers of their prize.

The note would only be released after Kumo suspected and threatened Konoha for attacking without reason.

"Good work," the Raikage told his subordinate after he was presented with a live Hyuuga that did not have that accursed protective seal, "Take her to a cell, we begin breaking her in tomorrow morning."

None of the two men noticed as Haru followed the jounin to where they planned on keeping his charge. Once he was alone in the Anbu prison cell with her, he created a few dozen Kage Bushin and had them Henge into random people and had them don slashed Konoha forehead protectors, afterwhich the proceeded to wreak havoc all over Kumo, which was the signal for the Kaminari no Hyuuga to begin the rescue operation. The Sakujo-nin already heading for where they were to later meet up with the Hyuuga.

"*"

Hinata didn't know what was going on around her, first she got knocked out, then she found herself in the presence of the Raikage, then she was thrown into a prison cell. A few minutes later she is joined by the Hyuuga whom she thought abandoned her. He didn't pay her any attention as he was busy doing something fishy. The next thing she knows, she's being carried out of the prison by her former bodyguard and was being escorted by a number of Hyuuga. They even managed to get out of the village, large explosions coming from the village could be heard as they created some distance between themselves and Kumo.

"W-who a-are y-you?" she decided to ask them after they were a few miles away from Kumo, and from the looks of things, they were slowing down.

"We are the protectors of the Konoha no Hyuuga," one of the escorts answered as Haru continued to run, slowing down slightly every few minutes.

A few minutes later the group stopped in front of a mass of tents, a whole clearing worth of tents and people walking around the place, some were patrolling the borders, one such shinobi walked up to the group.

"Haru-sama, we're glad you made it with the package," the shinobi said in greeting, "Seigen-sama arrived an hour before you did."

"I would assume that he is in the core tent," Haru said.

"Hai," the shinobi replied, "I will lead your clansmen to the tents we have set up for them."

"That would be appreciated," one of the Hyuuga said, and they followed the Sakujo member, while Haru put Hinata down, and told her to walk, and that she was safe with them.

When they arrived at the center tent, the one where Seigen was with his kidnap victim, Hinata didn't know how to react as she saw her mother alive, while not well, still alive.

"She is alive, a bit on the unwell side, but alive all the same," Seigen said, "I am Sakujo Seigen by the way, a friend of Haru's, I took her from Konoha. Your father thought that she had died in childbirth. We were lucky that Fuyu-san accidentally found her."

"We will leave you alone with her, there is much for us to discuss with our clansmen," Haru stated, then left the tent, followed shortly after by Seigen who patted Hinata on the head.

"We have some skilled medics that will be able to get her back to a healthier state," Seigen said before leaving her with the mother she thought she had lost.

"*"

The two clans were gathered around their leaders, and were told the full extent of the operation, as well as the reason why they were instructed to pack everything as they were moving. Runners were sent to inform the members of the Gouin clan that were still in Iwa of the destination change as well as the fact that they were being offered places in the new clan.

The two clans welcomed the change of scenery, and also welcomed the soon to be normal life. They would finally be a part of something bigger again. Though the Sakujo members were hesitant in joining another alliance of shinobi clans after the fiasco in the past. But they were willing to join Konoha. The Hyuuga really didn't have much of a choice as their head had told them he planned on eventually unifying the Hyuuga once more.

"How do we join Konoha?" one Sakujo-nin asked, raising his hand.

"A letter has already been delivered by one of our friends," Seigen informed the two clans, "He goes by the name Uzumaki Naruto, and is four years old. We'll be living on his property, suitable living arrangements have already been made."

"That's one lucky four year old," a kunoichi said, since the two leaders were quite strong.

"I wonder if we could get someone from Suna..." Haru mumbled as he walked away from the meeting as it had finally ended.

"Get some rest the lot of you," Seigen ordered, "We begin our journey to Konoha as soon as Hyuuga Ran is well enough to move, my mad skills were the only reason she could travel so far."

"There he goes acting all cool again," Hyuuga Kodo said, refering to Seigen's use of 'mad skills'.

#

He still couldn't believe that Naruto had handed him a letter from two clan heads, a letter which was a request to join Konoha. Two whole clans wanted to join Konoha, well a clan and a half since the Kaminari no Hyuuga were the real main family. Naruto even waited for the reply which meant that he was connected to those two clans somehow.

He decided to allow the two clans to join Konoha, but remembered to ask Naruto if they already had living arrangements made. He responded that they would be living on the presntly Uzumaki lands, a residential district had already been set up. How such a construction project had gone on unnoticed was beyond the aged Kage. So he simply handed the reply to Naruto who walked out of the building, leaving explosions of paint in his wake.

When he arrived at his home, Shiro was already in the the living room watching some TV.

"So? How'd it go?" Shiro asked.

"It went well, I think," Naruto said, then read the reply, "We're come to Konoha...or we should be as soon as Hyuuga Ran is well enough to travel on her own, without a Sakujo-nin to help her move on her own."

"That's good to know," Shiro said, "Can't believe that you actually humiliated Kumo...as well as got Konoha better terms and conditions in the new treaty."

"It was fun," Naruto said, "I think my other personas have bled into this one."

"If you say so," Shiro said, "Once your clans get here, training will recommence, you understand."

"Hai," Naruto said, "School's been boring anyway."

#

It took Ran a whole month before she could finally function as a proper human being on her own. She had spend quite a lot of time with her eldest daughter. She couldn't wait to finally meet her younger daughter, and be with her husband again. But there was a slight snag in that plan, she was informed that since she was declared as dead, she was no longer married to Hiashi, and therefore would be relegated to the cadet branch as soon as they returned to Konoha, unless she posed as a member of Kaminari branch, and pretended to be someone that just looked like herself, as well as shared the same name.

She had expected the group, consisting of two clans, to be running at full speed, but considering that there were a few children, and a few elderly people, they were walking. The enigmas of the two clans were their leaders, they stopped aging at a certain age, and were simply ageless in appearance, even though they were or should be over a hundred years old. One looked twelve, while the other looked to be about twenty-four to thirty years old.

"Are we there yet?" Hinata asked, again. She had lost her stutter in the month she spent by her mother's side. Positive reinforcement from a parent can do wonders for a child, there was also the fact that it wasn't so ingrained into her very being yet.

"No," Ran answered for the seven hundred and twentieth time during their trip, not only did they not go directly to Konoha, but they had actually passed by Iwagakure no Sato to pick up some more clansmen.

It was the most frightening experience of Ran's life, as she knew that it would have been possible for Iwa to decide to capture them. She found out later that the Bunshisetsu part of the Sakujo clan were hailed as heroes, especially Seigen, by Iwa, which was why the Tsuchikage had decided that no harm would come to a Hyuuga since they were allies of the Sakujo clan. It was a proclamation in recognition for what the Bunshisetsu did in the past for the good of Iwa.

It had taken them around another month or two just to get where they were presently, which was the border of Hi no Kuni. The leaders had informed the caravan, as they had managed to get some carts from Iwa, that while they were expected there would be no welcoming committee and that they would be going directly to where they would be living, where the Hokage would be meeting with them, along with whoever he deemed worthy.

Ran had been pulled aside by Haru just so he could remind her about acting differently, she had a role to play, that being a woman of marriageable age that would be the lure used for the Elders of the Konoha Hyuuga. Haru planned on making them beg for him to accept the Konoha Hyuuga clan. While those elders would lose their position and status as leaders of the clan, they were sure to try and gain the ear of the clan head. Uniting the true main, with the Konoha main, would surely make the two families closer, and would increase the elders' influence. It might have worked if the Hyuuga they were dealing with was one that thought like the present Hyuuga. Too bad for them Haru was way different.

"Hiashi should be made to believe that you are not coming back for reasons you decided to keep to yourself," Haru intructed, "Your task is to make him fall in love with your pretend self, a conflict of interest, in the end he will have to chose your real self or your pretend self. He will also have to chose between what he wants and what is best for the clan."

"Why?" Ran asked.

"It is a test for him," Haru said, "He accepted your death far too easily, he had in a way moved on."

"I believe that during the time you spent as his wife, you were unable to act as you wished, you were unable to show him everything about you," Haru stated, "This is your chance to show him everything he was unable to find out about you."

"I see...I guess it is true that I was a little bit imprisoned in the fact that I was elevated from my status as a cadet member to a main member," she said, "I will try my best, sir."

"Hinata can act as she sees fit," Haru said, "Impressionable youth."

"I understand," Ran said.

There were around a hundred and fifty in number, the Konoha patrol didn't know what to do about the group that they had chanced upon. Mixed in with the group were a few Hyuuga, one patrol member had even managed to catch sight of Hinata, but dismissed it as an impossibility, why would kidnappers head for Konoha. So they lay in wait for any suspicious activity to take place before acting.

"You might want to come out of hiding Anbu-sans," Haru spoke up beside a tree that a patrol member was hiding behind.

"I agree," Seigen said standing right behind the Anbu captain of the patrol team, "I don't want to have to drag you out from behind those trees, bushes, and leaves."

"Now, now, Seigen," Haru said, "Don't frighten them, you're radiating your excitement at the prospect that they do not do as we say."

"But the prospect of the hunt," Seigen said, "I really want to know if any of them can outrun me."

"Alright," the Anbu said, stepping out from behind the tree signaled his men to get out in the open, "We surrender, we're out, we're out. What now?"

"You inform, the Hokage that we are coming, and for him to wait for us at the pre-arranged meeting place," Haru told the Anbu.

"And he better be there, before we get there," Seigen said, "Or I'm making sure the five of you have the worst luck while in the village for the remainder of the year."

"H-hai," the Anbu said before leaving, in the direction of Konoha.

"Resume formation," Seigen said, "We need to take this up a notch."

"Hyuuga," Haru said, "Surround the caravan, we need to move as quickly and stealthily as possible to our destination."

"Hai!"

It took them less than six hours to get to the village, that was due to the fact that they had to avoid the new patrols, as well as the occasional squad of Ne Anbu sent out by Danzo to either take them out or kidnap a few members. When they got to their destination, they were met with a happy Hokage, along with a few members of the village council, along with the Uzumakis.

Haru and Seigen left the Uzumakis in charge of their clans, as they needed to go with the Hokage to finalize their joining the village, there was to be a lot of negotiating involved, while the village council wanted to milk these 'newbies' for all they were worth, Haru and Seigen had a way to bend the village council into giving into their demands.

With the leaders gone, Shiro and Naruto were in charge with assigning residences to the families of the two clans, well more like to the two minor clans that made up the Sakujo clan, the Hyuugas got one big compound all to themselves. Hinata was not yet returned to the Konoha Hyuuga as Hiashi was still not aware of the presence of the true Hyuuga main. Naruto personally led Ran and her daughter to where they would be staying within the Hyuuga compound.

"Here we are," Naruto said, "You will be staying here."

"Thank you Naruto-sama," Ran said.

"A-arigato...N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said, apparently her stutter remained when she was in the presence of her crush.

"If you need me, I live in the house by the lake," Naruto said, "You can't miss it, its quite a lake."

"Thank you again, Naruto-sama," Ran said, then walked into the house, while Naruto walked off, as he still had homework to finish.

"Oh yeah," Naruto remembered something and headed back to the mother-daughter pair, "I'll bring Hinata-chan's missed class work, next time I come by, or have one of _those_ two bring it for her."

"Arigato," the two girls said.

"*"

No matter what the council members did, they simply couldn't get their personal conditions implemented or included in the contract. The two leaders had simply brought out the big guns as soon as the negotiations started, unveiling one of their trump cards, that being the revelation that they were behind Kumo's loss of reputation, as well as Konoha's ability to threaten Kumo and get a sweet deal out of it.

"I insist that you at least have a certain number of members part of the the shinobi force of Konoha," the Sandaime argued, "If you are to live here, you must also show some effort to serve it, defend it in times of need. Your clan would be a great asset to the village not only in a boost in population but in strength as well, Seigen-dono."

"The younger ones might want to join the Ninja Academy," Seigen said, "I guess it would be possible to ask some of the older generation to join as well. Around how many would suffice as a minimum?"

The greedier and slimier of the council members that were in attendance were wondering how come the Hokage could simply ask for an addition to the fighting capability and capacity of the village, and the clan head simply accepted, while their own conditions were denied. How could a new clan find allies in the village, if they didn't surrender even a little.

"I would require a minimum of fifteen chunin and ten jounin," the Sandaime said, "Would you be able to provide that?"

"I suppose I could," Seigen said, "I have a request though, since my other members will need some form of employment."

"I will hear out your request," Hiruzen said.

"I am well aware of the fact that Konoha has a police force made up of the Uchiha clan," Seigen said, "While I'm sure they make a good village law enforcement force, I do not think that they are the best at investigations of any kind. I request that you permit another branch of law enforcement to be created, that being investigations, whose employees would be tasked with jobs such as being detectives to private detectives."

"I guess that would be alright," the Hokage said, "It would allow the Uchiha to relax a little bit more, after all."

The negotiations for the terms and conditions of joining continued for a little whlie more before the village council's attention shifted over to Haru, who simply watched the proceedings with a bored eye. Hiashi, force once, looked a little subdued.

"Now that we've dealt with the Sakujo clan," Hiruzen began, "We can move onto the next order of business, the Hyuuga state of affairs with the arrival of the true Hyuuga clan head. Haru-dono, will you be taking over the duties of clan head of the entire Hyuuga clan?"

"As of the moment," Haru stated, "I chose not to merge the two branches of Hyuuga just yet. The Konoha branch has yet to show itself worthy of more than our protection, until such a time that the Konoha branch has shown themselves worthy, I shall not take up my rightful place as clan head of the entire Hyuuga. Hiashi, you may continue as you have for the time being."

"I have a question," Hiashi said abruptly.

"Go ahead," Haru said.

"Where is my daughter?" Hiashi asked.

"She is with the rest of my branch," Haru said, "After meeting one of the members, she refused to leave, even after we informed her of your possible worry for her safety and well being."

"Will you be taking up the Hyuuga seat on the council at the very least?" Hiruzen asked, he knew that Haru was far older than he looked, but didn't know that he was also younger than he looked at the same time.

"Not until the Hyuuga of Konoha have proven themselves to me," Haru said, "Their elder council has bastardized the original seal of protection, turning more than half the clan into a caged bird. It is a clan divided, one subjugated to some semblance of slavery, while the other playing the role of master, ruler, tormentor, greed and power winning out, over what it truly means to be a family."

"While there may be no contract needed to be signed between your branch and the village, I would like to request some of your members to join the Konoha shinobi corps," Hiruzen said.

"All members save for myself, and one other, will be integrating themselves into the ranks of this great tree," Haru said, "My members live for the protection of the clan, if they can protect the clan by helping their new home, then they will gladly perform almost any task you have for them. I, and that other member, would prefer to be placed on the reserve roster just like most of the other clan heads."

"If you don't mind me asking, but who is this other member that seems to be treated specially," Uchiha Fugaku asked.

"Her name is Ran," Haru said catching Hiashi's attention, "The reason she is special, is because she has a connection to the Konoha branch, the entirety of which is the real cadet branch."

"How does that make her special," Fugaku asked.

"Does it really matter?" Haru asked, "Seigen, informed me that he had rescued a Konoha Hyuuga from some tormentors, and that said Hyuuga resembled my Ran."

"Well its true, they did look a like," Seigen said, "Though your Ran was much younger than the one I rescued, though they could have one of those reincarnation type of bonds...considering the circumstances..."

"Reincarnation type bond?" the Kurama head asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well...we have a friend in Kaze no Kuni whose clan...deals with the dead...sort of," Seigen explained, "What we meant by that was that the Hyuuga I had rescued more or less passed away."

"She was supposedly living a double life," Haru continued the explanation, "The person Seigen rescued was presumed dead by a lot of people, therefore the belief was strong enough to influence her spirit, she basically went through an advanced form of reincarnation. A part of her was reborn into another being, and to a soul time does not matter."

"Which is why his Ran, might remind you of the wife of a clan head, though younger by a few years," Seigen said.

Hiashi didn't know what to think about the revelation that his wife had died and at the same time was alive, albeit in a new younger body. She was a new person, he didn't know how he would be able to get her back.

"This clan of which you speak of," Shimura Danzo spoke up, "The one this friend of yours belongs to, what are they called?"

"They are the Saganiki clan," Seigen answered, perona number four was being formed, it would not do to ignore the man as much as his family despised the man, "They are a nomadic clan, one that aided in the initial capture of the Ichibi, as well as provided its containment device."

"Why do you ask?" Haru asked.

"I was just curious," Danzo admitted, which was the truth.

"*"

Naruto who was with Shiro at the time morphed into the body of the new persona. His name was Saganiki Tenma. He had sandy blonde floor length hair that was tied in a single braid, and had a pair of silver eyes which would gain what looked like a skull in each when performing necromancy. He wore a cloak around him, it along with the rest of his clothes were plain looking, not all that special in visual design, but their colors matched the desert sands. His clan's special ability was necromancy, and their clan speciality was fuinjutsu.

"*"

"Would it be possible for you to contact this clan?" one civilian council member asked, he was one of the ones that thought that Naruto should either be turned into a weapon for the village or be killed.

"It would," Haru said.

"Why do you ask?" Seigen said.

"We have a demonic infestation in the village, and we want it resolved," another civilian council member said.

"A demonic infestation you say...hmm...where or who is the demon of which you speak?" Haru asked, wanting a reason to gut thrash the man as he knew of the law forbidding it to be mentioned to anyone that didn't know the secret. Not that anyone knew that they knew the secret.

"It goes by the name of Naruto," another civilian council member added, forgetting that he was still in the presence of the Hokage that saw Naruto as a grandson and friend, "If the village could gain more control over the beast, or kill it, the village would be a lot stronger."

After the civilian was done speaking all in the room could feel the rise in killing intent being released in the room. Both Haru and Seigen were finally able to release what anger, resentment, and hatred, they had for a great portion of the village for their treatment before meeting Shiro and the rest of the family. Their chakras began to visibly swirl around them, and Seigen's bandaged arm gave out a blood red smoking mist, the blood seals hissing.

"We would appreciate it, it you would refrain from refering to our dear friend as a demon," both clan heads said at the same time, a synchronized effort but an easy task for one that had only one mind, and one soul, but several bodies, "Else we may have to show you just how much of a demon we can be."

Realizing how serious and dangerous the situation had become the Hokage released his own killing intent directly his blast in the direction of the two who spoke at the same time. He was trying to force them to back down, but it didn't seem to be working. So he resorted to words.

"Hokage-dono, would it be possible for us to execute him for breaking your law, intentionally too," Seigen calmly asked, not letting his KI go, "The only reason we really opted to join Konoha was because of our dear friend. We were informed by him of his circumstances, and will act in his defense when need be."

"That man broke your law, he intentionally broke it, thinking that we were not aware of the secret," Haru stated, "Both actions and intent were criminal. Will you allow us to personally end his existence?"

"As much as I would like to allow you to perform such a duty...he is a member of the civilian council," the Hokage spoke softly for only the shinobi clan heads to hear, "They are a necessary evil, and at least they didn't say it to his face."

"Fine," Seigen said.

"We will stand down for now," Haru said, "But the next time, we shall not be so lenient."

"Know this," Seigen said, "Uzumaki Naruto, as you know him and all of those related to him, are under my clan's protection."

"As well as mine, the Kaminari one at the moment," Haru stated.

"He has my personal protection as well," Hiashi said after a few minutes of debating with himself.

After the situation calmed down some, the village council continued to talk politics, economy, and whatever else was on the day's agenda. Haru and Seigen resigning themselves to the boredom of it all.

#

"A new form huh," Shiro said, refering to the persona sitting before him, "Are you planning on joining Konoha as well, Tenma-kun."

"Not for a while," Tenma, who looked to be into his seventies, said, "Maybe in a few years time, unless Konoha can top Suna's offer."

"What is Suna's offer?" Shiro asked curious.

"Even though you are family, I cannot reveal such secrets," Tenma said, "It is a Saganiki clan matter."

"I see," Shiro said, "Now what skills are you a master in, so I know what not to teach you."

"How about teaching me the basics," Tenma said, "Naruto is still a beginner after all, sure magic is easy, but chakra and a number of other things aren't so easily learnt or gained. There are skills and knowledge that can only be gained here in Konoha. Kindly remember this persona is one that has lived all its life in Kaze no Kuni, I have seen the desert sands and oases, from long before the clans of Kaze no Kuni decided to ally with the masters of the art of puppetry."

"I can believe that," Shiro said, "It is rather intriguing and interesting to note that while tou-san's other personas were born out of his need for disguises and were all created in the same time, yours are all created in the past, manipulating the timestream into adding, replacing, and subtracting memories from the souls, spirits, or simply minds of those that are affected by the events."

"How come I am able to use this ability, while you aren't?" Tenma asked.

"Ah...that could probably be attributed to the fact that my brother and I, are twins, the potential was split between the two of us," Shiro said, "While we may not be able to split ourselves as you and tou-san are able. We brothers can still time travel, and cause some random things to happen, like your existence."

"Ah, alright," Tanma said in understanding, "When my core self returns from class, will training begin right away, for we were given several assignments today."

"Homework first, before training," Shiro said, "I noticed that while the mind has all the knowledge the body does not..."

"Well...yeah, its like that since each is a physical form, each one needs to be trained," Tenma said, "We are not Kage Bushin, but real bodies, real physical shells for a part of a single soul."

"I know that," Shiro said, "But would it be possible for you to transform certain parts of your body to be able to use the abilities of anothe shell?"

"I guess..." Tenma said, "But I wouldn't like to try it out, since it could be rather dangerous mentally. It could potentially cause problems in the future as well."

"I see," Shiro said, "Its not that I'm looking for a shortcut, just seeing if there is any way to further evolve this ability of yours."

"I know," Tenma said, "While it would be dangerous to simply mix and match the shells, at least I have an unlimited number of possibilities, the only limit being the situations that they may be applied to."

"Why don't you train each other?" Shiro suggested, "You know, each persona trains the others, especially the core, it would grant you more power in each form."

"Ryoku-oji-chan's other forms don't seem to mix and match their styles," Tenma said, "I do not think it would be wise to share styles between all forms. But we shall see about the training, it sounds a little bit interesting. If the core is strong, the other parts also become stronger."

"One more thing, before I go fetch you," Shiro said.

"Hai?"

"Are you here, and with your clan, or are you just here?" Shiro asked.

"I am just here, and as soon as I fade myself, I will be with my clan," Tenma said, then faded away, he wasn't as skilled as his great great grandfather whose other selves simply vanished.


	47. Chapter 47

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

Note 2: Introducing a new 'line break': a "-" denotes a change of pov during a segment.

Note 3: Legend: a # denotes moving forward a long time or a great distance away, a "*" denotes short time or short distance

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-seven**_

It took a whole week before Hiashi was able to get his daughter back, and meet the woman that looked like a carbon copy of his own wife when she was in her mid to late twenties. Ran herself had not noticed that she had de-aged.

The residential district where the Haru's Hyuuga and the Sakujo clan lived was private property and in order to get in, one had to pass through the checkpoints, found in certain parts along the wall that surrounded the Uzumaki land. The guards put in place were members of the Sakujo clan that chose not to join the ranks of Konoha's shinobi corps.

When Hinata was returned to her father it was a rather tiring experience for all those involved, as Hinata didn't want to leave her mother, whom she had not realized looked younger which was thank to some potions that Seigen had fed her, that branch of magic being his forte. Ran had to whisper to her daughter what Haru had told her he had told the council and what had actually happened, when he had done that her memories were slightly altered or rather they were added to. Hinata was told that she had to not tell her father about her, Ran, being the same person.

Ran had decided to go along with her clan head's plot, as much had changed since her _death_ two years before. She wanted to see what kind of man her _former_ husband was, before opting to remarry him. If he proved to be unsatisfactory she would then try and move on, as there were plenty of other bachelors in Konoha.

The Hokage accompanied his rank commanders, from Chunin all the way up to Anbu, as he needed those that wished to join the ranks of Konoha's shinobi to be tested as to determine their ranks since none of them apparently had ever joined a previous rank examination. The Chunin, Jounin, Med-nin, Hunter-nin, and Anbu, were introduced as merely assessors of those wanting to be Konoha-nin's skills.

A requirement for every commander was to have the ability to create Kage Bushin, this skill was necessary when it came to testing more than one person, as the tests were actual fights.

At the end of the testing, which lasted for about three days, the results, which came out four days later, were that there were more men who wished to join the ranks than women, and there were a lot more jounin than anyone thought would have been possible, but considering how well they hid from the rest of the world it wasn't all that hard to imagine how so many of them could be so strong.

Haru and Seigen were shoo ins for jounin, or Anbu in all the fields that mattered.

Ran was easily jounin, but opted to remain on the reserve roster, the decision was not questioned.

#

"I'm a stalker," Naruto said one day after class, his _friends_ Haru and Seigen had _decided_ to pick him up from the academy, Shiro was convinced into waiting at home and was left flirting with Mikoto who needed a break from her abusive married home life.

"What made you say that?" Seigen asked, while it would normally be considered weird for someone to talk to themselves, when it came to Naruto and Ryoku it was fine, it was great fun too, it was like having an imaginary real friend while at the same time still being yourself.

"I dunno," Naruto said, "I just wanted to say it."

"Alright," Haru said, "Then who are you stalking?"

"I am stalking death," Naruto said, "Since ever step we make, every move we make, every breath we take, moves us closer and closer to that which is inevitable."

"Where in the world did you hear that?" Seigen asked, as something like that did not normally come out of a four year old's mouth, no matter how abnormally mature that four year old was.

"I think Shiro-jiji said it once," Naruto said, "Why? Isn't it true?"

"It is...sort of..." Haru said.

"Don't bother with the sort of," Seigen said, "You already know that the sort of is rather difficult to explain."

"I know," Naruto said, "So...when do you think I should get _kidnapped_?"

"Probably it would be best during our next birthday," Seigen said, "Security is usually lax at that time, and therefore infiltrating shinobi will be missed, even Sushi will most likely not be noticed."

"So...who's writing the Sushi about the request?" Naruto asked.

"Shiro-jiji will do it," Seigen said, "We'll just ask him to do it. He can't say no to the three of us."

"_Or you could simply have contacted me,_" Ryoku said appearing beside the three invisible to everyone else but them, "_Whisper your words, lest the populace think you're mad._"

"_Well you already know about the date, you can just pick up Naruto once the celebrations begin and he is out of the Uzumaki property so that no blame will land on us,_" Haru whispered.

"_I'll pass that on to Shiki and Usagi, as they will be the ones to kidnap you,_" Ryoku said, "_The others are too noticeable, and it wouldn't do if they were recognized as Mei-chan would have to suffer through a lot more paperwork._"

"_Alright, its in a few months or so, so what should I prepare?_" Naruto, whispering, asked.

"_Prepare? Its a kidnapping, you don't prepare anything. They'll just leave some ransom note with the Hokage, and when you are returned there will be another note,_" Ryoku said.

"_If you say so, Oji-san,_" Seigen whispered affectionately.

"_Is there anything else? No? Great! Back to paperwork! Oh joy! What fun!_" Ryoku said jovially, then vanished.

"I'm bored" Seigen suddenly said as they neared the Uzumaki borders, "You don't have any homework, and Shiro-jiji isn't going to be training you today, so is there anything we can do?"

"I'm going to go bug the Aburame," Haru said and walked away from the two.

"We can try and prank someone," Naruto said to Seigen.

"We could," Seigen said, "But who, and what would we do?"

"_Before you do anything, here,"_ Ryoku suddenly appeared nearly causing Naruto to have a heart attck, both of him, he dropped a box in front of them, "_Inside the box are the tools of the trade, along with a map, simply say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good', and it will reveal a map of where ever you are, the version in the box will only show a few miles around you. Its a rather cool map._"

"Anything else in there?" Seigen asked.

"_Special explosive notes or tags,_" Ryoku said, then explained, "_You write down what you want explode from the tag, then ignite it with a mix of magic and chakra, only a small amount unless you want a lot of whatever it is you want to cover the place, something, or someone with. Good luck!_" he disappeared again.

With Ryoku done again, the two remaining people there opened the box. Naruto picked up the rolled up sheet of parchment, said the words then watched as lines appeared on surface of the parchment. Then the dots appeared, followed by a few other things. A small pamphlet which fell out of the map itself was revealed to be an instruction manual. So while Naruto looked over the map, Seigen read the manual.

When Naruto was done with his looking at the intricate map, which was based on two things and not one, it was based on the Original Marauder's Map, and the security system of Kiri. He rifled through the other things inside the box, for something so small it sure held a lot of stuff. There were smoke bombs, dung bombs, a pack of sheets of rectangular papers labeled unlimited special explosive notes or tags, paint bombs, paint balls, fish bombs, squid bombs, mud bombs, a few rubber chickens, a number of kunai, and a number of other things.

Naruto picked up one of the kunai and tried to figure out why it was in the box. When he tried to see if it was sharp, it exploded releasing some smoke which moved away to reveal an apple. He then bit into the thing, which wasn't so bad, as it was a real apple. While he ate that one, he rumaged through the things in the box a little bit more, and found a bunch of other normally pointry and dangerous to one's health things. He found out that they all turned into fruits if they were about to do bodily harm on a living thing.

"I've read through the thing," Seigen, refering to the manual, said, "We're gonna hit the Torture and Interrogation Headquarters."

"Isn't that a bit...high profile for our first project?" Naruto asked.

"You know you want to," Seigen said, "If I want to, then you must want to too."

"I know," Naruto said, closing the box, and walking with Seigen in the direction of where they knew the IT HQ was, Seigen having been there already. As they walked through the village, they suppresed their chakra, Seigen layered some chakra hiding spells on Naruto as the core didn't have the control that the other shells had.

When they were close enough to the facility, Seigen dumped a helluva lot of good luck on the two of them, it was better than Felix Felicis aka Liquid Luck, although it should be noted that Seigen could brew that one.

Before entering the facility, they formulated their actual battle plan. It took an hour of planning before they decided to split up and mess with most of the facility. Naruto would take on the above ground, which consisted of five floors, while Seigen would take on the lower levels, which included the interrogation rooms, and the prison cells.

Seigen had Naruto practice how to set up the traps and whatnot before entering the facility, for while he had the know how, he had no physical experience in performing such tasks. When he was prepared was when their planning session had ended.

"*"

While Seigen and Naruto were busy rigging one of the most secure places in all of Konoha, Haru had summoned Manda and turned him into Fuyu. They then entered the Aburame ground holding chakra bombs. It was named as such for when it exploded it simply released kikaichu consumable chakra which would float in the air for a few seconds before attaching themselve to any human being in the area. Haru had gotten them from Ryoku, who nearly scared the Hyuuga out of him by popping out of his chest like a chest buster alien.

The bombs were like grenades in that they had a pin that needed to be pulled, and it would take three seconds for them to detonate, and fill a five by five by five space with the chakra in a kind of gas form, before they zeroed in on the closest human. The chakra was made to be so delicious that the Aburame bugs were sure to go nuts over it.

As they walked in, blending in was easy, all they needed to do was knock out a pair of Aburame, making sure to spray some special bug spray on the two people to make the bugs go to sleep. They stripped the two people, Haru got to wear the kunoichi's clothes, while Fuyu the shinobi's. They left the two knocked out people in a very compromising position.

Faking having kikai was easy, since all Haru needed to do was summon up some bugs and insects, all of which cooperated. Fuyu didn't really enjoy the feeling of the things crawling all over him under the standark Aburame gear. He was the boss of the snake summon clan for crying out loud, but he had to endure the experience, else Haru might make him do something even more uncomfortable.

"We split up," Haru instructed when they were deep enough into the Aburame territory, "You douse the cadets, I douse the main."

"Good luck," Fuyu said, then slowly walked away, imitating the Aburame, it wasn't so hard, the Aburame were kind of like the Hyuuga when they walked around their district.

"Luck? I have plenty of it," Haru said, then made his way to the home of the Aburame head's family.

"-"

Aburame Shibi was an elite jounin. While he was clan head, he still worked primarily as a shinobi, he even had a genin team of his own. He lived a very organized and logical existence, or so he liked to believe he did. It was mid afternoon, and just like clockwork he made his way to his study, having finished team practice and missions, he had to finish some unfinished clan related paperwork. He expected the day to proceed the same way it had the previous day, and the day before that, and the day before that. What he did not expect was to be knocked unconscious in his own home.

Before entering the state of bliss, he had managed to see out of the corner of his eye what he believed to be one of his own clansmen.

"-"

After knocking the clan head unconscious, he stripped the man of his clothing, leaving him only in his boxers, then shackled him to his bed in his room, leaving the keys to the things hanging from a chain above the bed.

Before leaving the room, he set up an elaborate yet simply trap, once the door to the room was opened a wire attached to the door would somehow pull the pin of the chakra bomb, and three seconds later, whoever opened the door would get an eye full of the clan head in his boxers before his or her vision would be filled with black, just as the clan head, who by that time should be awake and aware of his surroundings.

Since he was done with that room, he moved onto his next target, that being his own yearmate, Shino. Just like his parent's room, the room was very neat, things were very well organized, and everything was simple. Haru set up the same trap, then left the room, making sure to leave the boy's father's clothes in the room.

He repeated the process, the door trap, with the other houses he encountered on the way out of the rather large compound of the Aburame clan, meeting up with Fuyu as they both exited the compound, all bombs had been left in the place. It was only a matter of time before the mayhem began.

"I think we may have commited torture," Haru said as they watched as the Aburame panicked within their homes, and around the grounds of their land.

While Haru had left people's clothes in other people's rooms, mostly in a messy heap or pile, Fuyu had made sure to leave some corosive but non-lethal poisons that were, and had drenched unsuspecting Aburame, the poison had the effect of disintegrating the clothes of the Aburame. Who knew that they were physically fit, and that the women were unexpectedly beautiful, most of them anyway.

It was only when some Aburame returning from a mission noticed them hiding in plain sight and not being affected by the chaos, did Haru unsummon Fuyu, remembering to revert him to Manda, and then bolting out of there as fast as he could in order not to get caught. Of course, he ditched his disguise as soon as he could.

"*"

All it took was a moment, just one moment for something to be either perfected or destroyed. It was a good thing that both Seigen and Naruto were so immersed in good luck, since they would have otherwise been caught in all of these moments. Their luck was so good that they followed their instincts when it told them to duck, face a certain way, cut this wire in the security panel, that wire in the surveilance feed, and kick that TI member in the gonads who was about to grope another member.

Rigging all the offices, rooms, labs, and whatnot above ground was easy, there weren't even that many people around at the time. Naruto was able to set traps around even the area that the Hokage usually entered, not that he was aware of it.

He replaced the papers labeled as chakra paper with the special tags writing down what he wanted to happen on the corner in as small writing as he could, the handwriting didn't need to be neat, it was the intent that needed to be clear.

In the toilets, Naruto had set up dung bombs to blow up when the toilets were flushed, mini-fire bombs to burst into flames whenever the faucets were turned on, and slime to spew from the showers whenever used. Of course all the prank materials were good for a solid three days, give or take a few hours.

"-"

The underground was the most fun, not only was he able to play pranks on the people that worked there, but he was also able to help them break the wills of people. The prisoners held there would know after experiencing the pranks that Konoha was not to be messed with, as the torture methods were, while not extreme, were slightly insane. Seigen intended for no one to disregard the saying look underneath the underneath.

He began laying his traps all over the lowest floor, starting with a dead end, he had some Kage Bushin help him when it came to setting up all the traps. The traps were found under every single thing in the place. It was like some ancient tomb by the time he reached the first floor where Naruto was waiting for him.

Every single step anyone inside the place would make one hour after the two left the facility would set off a trap, and since the person would be rather surprised by it, that one trap could possibly cause a chain reaction to occur.

While the Konoha-nin would surely not be able to set off all the traps in the underground facility, the prisoners were all sure to set off all the traps in their immediate surroundings. The poor fools, those in interrogation rooms would break a whole lot faster once the pranks were done with them.

"-"

After one hour of monitoring the facility by way of the map, Naruto and Seigen watched their first victim, they had planted some recording devices all over the facility so that they would be able to view their handy work at a later date. The recording devices had a wireless transmission function, which dumped all they recorded into a special orb.

Ryoku didn't really enjoy the fact that for a memory to be viewed in a Pensive, one had to dunk one's head into the liquidy substance that reminded him of something out of a tender juicy hotdog. So he created an orb that could do as a pensive does, and at the same time could be used as a video database. The little recording devices were tiny marbles that could record events within a certain area, then transmit them back to the orb. The way to input memories into the orb was also different as Ryoku and his family didn't exactly have wands to use. All one needed to do was touch the orb, think of the memory, and will a copy to be transferred to the orb. That was it. Viewing could be done either by touching the orb, or filling a room with the memory.

The setting they set the orbs to was to begin recording as soon as the first trap/prank was sprung.

#

The sun was blazing overhead, it may not have been noon but that didn't make it any less hot in the middle of no where surrounded by desert sands. Though it was more than sweltering, the members of the Saganiki clan didn't mind the heat as they were quite used to it, their bodies were so used to the heat that they didn't even perspire anymore.

They, being one of the few nomadic clans left in Kaze no Kuni, allowed them to freely roam wherever they pleased. Suna had long wanted them to join the village due not only to their necromantic bloodline limit but also due to their ability to not only bind the a demon, but also to an extent better control them. The Ichibi no Shukaku especially, since the Saganiki clan were responsible for most of the work in regards to the blasted thing, the final sealing that is. While the clan was able to make a better seal for the demon, there was a great price to pay, the Ichibi had an almost irrational hatred for the Saganiki, it was only in recent memory that the clan head, Tenma, realized why that was. By being blood related to none other than the Taijutsu no Tatsujin, the Bijuu, all nine of them more than despised any that had any positive relationship with the man that trained the man that sealed then separated them all those years ago.

Suna had been trying to get the Saganiki clan to join Suna by offering them the bodies of the deceased, both friend and foe, for their use in whatever it was that the clan used the dead for, be it battle or household chores.

If there was a clan that could bring dinosaurs back to life, it was the Saganiki clan, though they would have to find the bones of such a creature first just to get a feel for the creature before attempting a semi-revival. They had already accidentally brought back the formerly dreaded sand shark, but since it was an accidental thing they had also altered the thing's source of energy. Instead of feasting on whatever it used to, it now gained sustenance crystalized chakra, such things were, while difficult to produce, were plentiful in supply.

This crystalized chakra was made out of the excess chakra of the clansmen whenever they used their bloodline, the excess chakra was captured in precious stones of any kind, then kept away until they needed to sell some for money or to feed a sand shark.

The sand sharks became the clan's primary mode of transportation after the accidental resurrection. They were not only transportation, but also the primary defense of the clan from would be attackers, assassins, thieves, bandits, or whatever. While unable to gain sustenance from flesh, blood, or bone, these sharks were still able to do what their aquatic counterparts were known for doing.

The clan was presently camped out near a deep gorge in the earth, gale force winds shooting out of the whole in the ground. It was a mystery what could be found within, and how such winds were produced from in it. This was the reason why the clan had camped out where they did. They dealt with one of the unknowns in the world, death, they so loved their mysteries, and therefore they wished to uncover what it was that could be found in a hole in the ground. One which could be found in the desert but was not filled with sand, but with rocks, the sands kept being blown out of the crater, out of the gorge.

"Any progress?" Tenma asked one of his clansmen.

"There are no patterns to the winds," the clansman replied, "We've already lost close to a hundred skeleton scouts to those winds, and I don't think we could afford to lose any sharks."

"What of possible weaknesses in what seems to be the automatic defense system of the gorge?" Tenma asked.

"We haven't found any possible places to climb down through," the clansman replied, the whole time looking through a telescope studying the gorge's layout, while his companions tested the winds.

"I feel a little impatient," Tenma admitted, then wondered aloud, "Perhaps I should resurrect the winds..."

"Resurrect the winds?" the clansman he was talking to asked.

"I said it aloud huh," Tenma said, "Just as there are demons, gods, and spirits of men and animal alike, there are also spirits of nature...but it has been a long time since they have roamed the world, freely and alive, man was the cause for their ceasing to exist in the mortal plain. One would be quite helpful in this situation."

"Where did you hear about that, Tenam-sama?" another clansman asked.

"A history lesson I had as a child," Tenma stated, then continued, "If we could somehow harness the power needed to bring one back to life...we could get down into the gorge without losing anymore resources."

"What would be needed? Surely not bones," another clansman said.

"No, not bones...lots and lots of chakra saturated wind, and probably wind chakra," Tenma said, "At least that is what I think is needed for such a project. Its not like there is a formula for such a thing, its never been tried nor tested before, and I only thought of it now."

"How much chakra are we talking about here?" another asked.

"Around...hmm..." Tenma gave his answer some thought, "Enough to form a believable replica of Shukaku. That would be enough winds, saturated and formed through wind natured chakra, to form a visible Shukaku made out of air, the sands being held up would also need to be saturated with chakra."

"That sounds like a lot of chakra," another said, whistling.

"Let's do it!" someone decided to shout from the crowd that had suddenly gathered around Saganiki clan head.

"It sounds like fun!" someone else exclaimed.

"C'mon Tenma-sama!" a teen shouted.

"Very few of our number are able to even produce wind natured chakra," Tenma said, "How do you lot expect to generate the required amount?"

"Oh yeah..." someone said, "Forgot about that."

"We could hire us some Suna-nin," someone suggested.

"Yeah, we've got the funds for several S-ranks," another piped in.

"Hmm..." Tenma thought about it a little more, then gave his answer, "Fine. Someone send a mission request to Suna for a team of nine Suna-nin with the ability to produce wind natured chakra, as well as request that the Ichibi no Jinchuuriki be sent as well."

"Hai!" a member of the finance division of the clan said, and returned to the tents to write up the request, before having another member to travel to Suna to deliver the request and wait for the team.

"Kotone and Kirara," Tenma said.

"Hai!" Kotone, who had long golden hair, replied, appearing before the clan head stood at attention.

"Yes?" Kirara, who had bronze colored hair, said, as she approached her clan head.

Both girls were in their early twenties, and wore, of all things, kimonos, decorated with designs of skeletons battling Shukaku. Each young woman also had a medium sized gourd strapped to their backs filled with sand, it was ground up bones which were used in their necromancy. Each member of the clan usually had something similar with them, even the children.

"I need the two of you to pick up a mission request from the financial division, one requesting aid from the Sakujo clan, we'll be needing a lot of luck to finish this resurrection project," Tenma instructed.

"Mission request form? Why?" Kotone asked, "We've never had to use something like that before."

"What's with the change of procedure?" Kirara asked.

"The Sakujo clan has recently moved and joined Konoha," Tenma said.

"How do you know that? We haven't received word from them in a while," Kotone said.

"Our contact in Konoha has informed me of such a development," Tenma said, said contact being himself and Shiro.

"If you say so, Tenma-sama," Kotone said.

"We accept this mission, Tenma-sama," Kirara said, "We'll bring us back some good luck!"

"Get going, we need them with us before the Suna-nins, arrive," Tenma said.

"Hai," both young women said, bowed, saluted, then left for the financial division tent. The financial division was actually made up of fifteen members, from three families of five.

Turning to face the present problem of the clan, Tenma surveyed the hole in the ground himself. His aged eyes scanning the walls, the floor, and even the currents of the winds. He was the oldest in terms of experience, of the personas of Naruto, and as such also had the most quirks.

"Someone find me a kite," Tenma suddenly said, "I think we can take a break, and fly a kite."

"A kite, Tenma-sama?" one of the surveyors asked, "The winds are too strong for one."

"I'll reinforce the thing with chakra," Tenma said, "That should do it...and bring me some paper airplanes too."

"What for?"

"We'll be testing the currents of the winds," Tenma said, he then created a chair made out of bones, sat down and waited for the kite and paper planes. No one really paid any mind to the chair, as most of the clan's furniture dealt with such things.

#

"Who knew those Anbu were that paranoid," Seigen said, as he and Naruto walked back home, their prank mission was a success, one that wasn't finished yet.

They had watched as the TI department called in all available members and Anbu to go through the facility. The whole place had been booby trapped, and while the traps didn't seem all that harmful, they were paranoid enough to request aid, and get more people pranked.

The one boggart hybrid that Naruto had left in one of the women's restrooms went nuts as soon as Mitarashi Anko got into the cubicle it was lodged into. The thing had turned into the person that would have the effect of turning the women into the closest thing to a fan girl, instead of turning into their greatest corporeal fear. Who knew Anko had a thing for a certain scarred and fellow chunin, well Naruto now knew.

Who would have also thought that a number of the main instructors of the Ninja Academy were members of Anbu, the only reason Naruto found out was that some of the traps caused the masks to get dislodged, and some were rendered irreparable. Hatake Kakashi had the misfortune of getting slime on his face mask, causing it and all its replacements deemed no longer salvageable. His reputation of being a semi-mysterious individual would have been ruined had he not chosen to stick his face in one of his books, and refused to actually look at anyone while he went home to fetch a spare set of masks, and a whole new outfit as the one he had brought with him was also ruined beyond recognition due to an over abundance of dung bombs mixing with smoke bombs.

"You think we could hit the Nara next?" Naruto said, there was still some time before bedtime for another chaotic causing event.

"Why not," Seigen said, then both changed directions, and headed for the Nara district.

"*"

Haru had decided to see just how much temporary mental trauma he could cause the members of the Yamanaka clan. Since they were the premier clan when it came to anything to do with the mind, he thought it would be entertaining to see how they would cope with something that would cause them to lose sleep for a good week at most. Haru knew that Seigen and Naruto were going to hit the Nara, so he might as well hit the Yamanaka, leaving the Akimichi to worry about being targeted next, the prank being that they weren't going to have to experience anything unless they went to the TI HQ to help out.

Haru made his way to the home of the Yamanaka clan head, they didn't live in their own district or even a compound. The Yamanaka clan lived scattered throughout the village unlike their closest allies and friends. It was at the flower shop that Haru found his first victim, that being the wife of the clan head. Yamanaka Hitohana.

She was tending to the shop, as she was not a kunoichi, she spent her time behind the cashier, and not expecting to be blindfolded, handcuffed, and hung above a venus flytrap. Haru remembered to flip the open to closed sign. Once the poor woman was hanging above the plant, he removed the blindfold and placed a temporary illusion on all the plants in the family's greenhouse that made them all look like carnivorous plants. He also left a key on the counter of the shop with an attached note stating that it was the key to removing the plants. The key hole was hinted to being a certain flower or honey pot. It was hidden above the Hitohana's body, but Haru believed that Inoichi wouldn't think of looking there first.

After leaving the head's family home, he continued his crusade at the next Yamanaka home he encountered, and left an extremely hyperactive kitty by the name of Tora in the owner's bathroom. The poor jounin that owned the home would be subjected to a fate worse than death, Tora the Daimyo's wife's cat.

Next up on his list, were a number of other more mundane things, like switching all the men's underwear for women's underwear. Hanging a man's entire collection of Icha Icha books outside of his girlfriend's home with a note attached saying that he would rather have her than his books, or something like that.

There was also the kunoichi that whenever she said a certain word anywhere she went within the village, she would be hit in the face by a randomly flavored pie, it was a spell that Haru had come up with on the fly. Then if she said another word she would be hit drenched from head to toe by ketchup. Another word would cause tar to cover her arms, and whatever word followed that would cause feathers to rain down on her arms. If she ended up screaming profanities, Haru had set up several Kage Bushin to form and cover her mouth with an ice cream cone.

He even found a Yamanaka working for Danzo, and decided that the man deserved to return to regular society as well as his clan, and therefore set up a number of things to go wrong with the man that would normally get him killed in the presence of his boss. The poor Yamanaka was forced to see his boss give him a lap dance whenever he saw his boss, illusion Danzo was also depicted wearing a mankini. It was a rather disturbing sight, on which Haru decided to hit himself with a memory charm to get rid of the image.

After a while, he got bored with messing with the Yamanaka, and headed for home, and met up with Seigen and Naruto at one of the checkpoints. They chatted about the fact that the Nara would not be able to sleep for a whole week due to all the nightmarish things the duo had wrought on the troublesome saying clan, the lazy ones anyway. The duo had given them a reason to doze off, save for the children, but they would spend an entire week not sleeping to be rewarded by blissful uninterrupted sleep. Since it was mostly the men that had been affected, the women had had to suffer from something else, they would be forced into spending a week doing as their husbands, brothers, fathers, grandfathers, whatevers, did most of the time, and that they scared the crap outta them for doing.

The duo refrained from mentioning what it was they did exactly, as it could get them in trouble with the Hokage. Not that they needed to inform one another of what they had done, seeing as all three were one and the same person.

"*"

That night, Shiro realized and informed his father that Naruto's multiple bodies was slightly different from Ryoku's, in that Shiro realized that once Naruto created a persona, a body, he could not simply make it disappear as the body had a life of its own, people that needed the persona and whatnot. Naruto's multiple body experience and ability was more like how a Rin'negan user had more than one body, except that Naruto's had individual personalities...sort of.

Ryoku didn't mind, since it made him and his great great grandson once again unique, though still retaining similar traits when it came to that particular ability and skill.

Naruto was informed of it in the morning, only for Shiro to be told that such a fact had already been discovered by Tenma. Another discovery was that only Naruto, the core could form the new persona, give it form, and also transform himself into one of his other forms, the other forms were stuck in their forms unable to transform into another of the forms.


	48. Chapter 48

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-eight**_

Wherever she went, she was always accompanied by at least one of the senior members of the Hyuuga Main, on occasion it was Fuyu, the mysterious servant and subordinate of Haru. Fuyu never really stayed among the Hyuuga of either branch, he always seemed to only be there when he was needed, Ran found him interesting in that he was professional about his babysitting job, which was what he more or less did when he shadowed her around the village.

It had been a year already, and yet, Hiashi had not made his move, whatever his reasoning was. His brother, Hizashi, had already tried his hand at courting her, his own wife had passed away shortly after his son Neji was born. When asked why he decided to court her, he replied that since his brother was not going to do anything he might as well. She was rather beautiful, and her hand in marriage came with the reward of possibly becoming second-in-command once the Hyuuga was whole again. While she knew the rise in position was a selfish reason, she didn't mind so much since Hizashi seemed genuinely interested in her.

Hizashi wasn't the only one to court her, there were members from the other shinobi, and a few civilian, clans as well. She was young, and beautiful, and belonged to one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha, the perfect catch. Even ten year old Uchiha Itachi had tried his hand, and this was a young man in Anbu of all divisions, that was thought of as semi-anti-social, or not interested in the opposite gender due to ignoring his fan girls.

The reason for the bodyguard aka babysitter was due to the fact that on a few occasions someone had tried to do what the Uchiha had done to Mikoto. Unfortunately for the would be kidnapper, they had to deal with the Sakujo that were with her at the time. When someone can phase their hand through a ribcage and pull out the heart without spilling any blood one cannot expect to live to reveal who had been behind the attempt. It was a bad choice, but at the time the kunoichi with Ran had thought it was some nuke-nin pervert.

Her suitors had spent each date with her as romantically as they could think of, it was probably due to two clan heads warning them all that should she not enjoy herself, end up crying, or get hurt in any way by any of them, that they would experience the wrath of both Haru and Seigen, along with their clansmen, all of the adult clansmen.

While most of the men that courted her were nice enough, there were those few that were not so nice, those that only saw her as a means of getting a higher station in life. These men spent a lot of money on her, secretly calling it investing in something worthwhile. Haru and Seigen knew about it, Naruto had been spying on some of these dates, and he got back at them with more than simple pranks.

There were a few that had gone bankrupt after not treating Ran as a human being, this was due in part to Naruto not buying from their stores, and the other two Konoha forms spreading devastating rumors about these unlikeable men while under henge. No one suspected them of their trickery, just as no one knew exactly that the Kyuubi was no longer present in Naruto.

While Ran spent her time on dates, training a little, secretly spending time with her two daughters, and generally living a semi-normal life, she was unaware of the inner turmoil that Hiashi was dealing with. After all he had been told that his wife had died, and that there was this young woman, the spitting image of his wife walking around the village, he had also been told that it was highly possible that she was a reincarnation of his late wife. The worst part of everything was that his own brother had gone ahead and tried to win her heart and hand, while he wallowed in what could be mistaken for self-pity as he really didn't think he had it in him to act like a love sick person again.

"*"

One day, his brother thought that his twin had suffered enough, so he decided that it would be a good idea to flaunt his progress by bringing Ran over to meet Neji. Hiashi wasn't told of course, and it wasn't like he would use the damnable seal on his very own brother, he'd never done it either, only told his brother to pretend to be in pain when he faked using the seal. Neji didn't like his uncle all that much, since no one bothered to inform him that his father was in no real pain.

Ran had accepted the invitation to visiting the Konoha Hyuuga district, partly due to missing the place, and partly due to the fact that she actually enjoyed Hizashi's company. Her ex-husband had yet to even make a move, so she began to think that perhaps it was finally time to move on, Hizashi was nice and all that, and sometimes slightly more. Uchiha Itachi would have been great if he wasn't so physically young, and there were a few Nara that were actually quite lively.

She had been led by Hizashi to his personal dining quarters, where Neji was waiting, the child didn't really know what to expect, save for that she was a member of the main branch and head family, sort of. His father had told him to act his best, not grumpy or show any dislike for someone of the main.

Once there, he introduced her to Neji, who reacted unlike what the two had been expecting, he was genuinely happy to meet her for some reason. Before dinner could be started, it was a dinner meal, Hiashi entered the room looking for his brother for some reason. Once inside the room, he visibly froze , turned, and left the room in haste, not bothering to say anything. It was quite abrupt, and Hizashi didn't know whether or not his brother was alright.

"I think...perhaps, I shall need to speak with my brother," Hizashi said, "Excuse me. I apologize that our dinner plans didn't go as smoothly as I had planned, but feel free to spend the rest of the evening with my son."

He left after saying that heading for his brother's quarters. Once there, he simply walked in, to find the man banging his head on the desk in the room. He really didn't know what to make of it, so he coughed to get his brother's attention.

"What do you want?" Hiashi asked, his voice barren of any emotion as he had reeled in all his emotions like a _good_ shinobi should.

"I just got worried about you, since you left without telling me what you needed," Hizashi said, "I'm also sorry for inviting her without telling you first. I know what you must be going through...It was selfish of me, I apologize."

"No need to apologize," Hiashi said, loosening his grip on his emotions, "Its not your fault, who am I to begrudge another man, especially his brother, his happiness."

"Ehm...so what did you need me for?" Hizashi asked.

"I was going to ask you for some advice," Hiashi admitted, "I mean...well...while you may be dating her...I find myself attracted to her as well...not only because she looks like my Ran...but something else...you are the only one I would dare talk to about such things."

"Well, if it bugged you that much, why didn't you act on your feelings...ah...sorry wasn't thinking there," Hizashi said, "I kind of forget that you still have to project the image of the clan whenever we have these kinds of discussions."

"S'alright," Hiashi said waving away the apology, "Well?"

"It is nice being around another woman again," Hizashi said, "A little bit on the young side sure, but everyone's after her. You know I waited for you to act actually, but you didn't so I thought you weren't interested."

"But I was," Hiashi admitted, "I still am...its just that I didn't...I don't...I'm not sure whether I would be betraying my late wife or not had I pursued this clone of hers. They even blush and smile the same way."

"Eh! You've seen her blush? When?" Hizashi asked, none of her suitors had been able to get more than a smile from her.

"During my last rather brief interaction with her," Hiashi said, "I was visiting Haru-sama in the hopes that the clan would finally be united...again, and she was with him so I complimented her."

"Brother," Hizashi said, "You don't compliment people. You don't even compliment me, and I'm your twin."

"Well...I did...she was acting the same way Ran did in front of important persons or the elders," Hiashi said, "I couldn't help myself."

"Maybe you should speak to someone else about this," Hizashi said, "Like that teammate of yours from before, or maybe ask one of your genin if they know anyone you could seek advice from."

"You have got to be kidding," Hiashi said, "Ask my genin, or that woman? No way! I have an image to uphold, not only for myself but for the clan."

"You're forgetting something very important older brother," Hizashi said.

"And what is that?" Hiashi asked.

"Haru-sama is the one that is the face of the Hyuuga clan," Hizashi said, "Almost everyone knows it and acknowledges it as fact. People won't really care as much anymore if you act a little bit out of character."

"I'll ask Tsume in the morning," Hiashi said, giving up in his argument with his brother.

"Glad to hear it," Hizashi said, "Which means I'll have to give up my claim, and simply be her friend, since you are now taking the initiative. It was fun while it lasted, but I don't think that it would be ok in the long run."

"Don't let me stop you from doing what you want," Hiashi said.

"I'm not," Hizashi said, "As I think about it now, the station that I would have obtained had I chosen to truly pursue a lasting relationship with her, is not one suited for myself. It is something for you, so...have dinner with us?"

"Not tonight," Hiashi said, "I think, it would do my daughters some good if I dined with them."

"Well...if you're sure," Hizashi said, then left the room and headed back to where Ran and Neji were.

"-"

Once his brother had left him alone in his room, Hiashi changed clothes, and made his way to where he was sure his two daughters were sure to still be having dinner, the kitchen. The kitchen staff didn't react to well at the sight of their _clan head_ deciding to dine there with his two girls, his daughters didn't really seem to mind, but Hinata looked at his a little suspiciously. She thought he was up to something, her mother told her that when a boy did something different that meant that he was planning something.

Hiashi noticed his daughter's look, and decided to file it away in his mind for later reviewing, as he didn't want to dwell on any problems for the time being, as he spent his dinner in the kitchen.

#

In the morning, Hiashi woke up earlier than he normally did, and did all his routines, even going so far as to finish his paperwork before heading out for the day, he had four people he needed to see, his genin team to inform them that they had a day off, Tsume for advice, and Haru for permission.

Informing his genin about the change of schedule was not a problem, it was his unscheduled meeting with Tsume that would be a problem. He was dreading such a meeting, since he usually had a stick up his ass while in her presence, and in the past had made fun of her relationship with her late husband. But that was hopefully in the past, and that she had forgotten how he had teased her on the fact that while normally she was a tomboy, around her late husband she was such a girl.

As he stood by the gate of the Inuzuka compound, he couldn't help but look visibly agitated, the guard that was left to guard the gate while his partner went off to fetch Tsume, couldn't help but feel uneasy in the presence of one of the coldest and most dangerous men in all of Konoha.

"So? What did you want to speak to me about?" Tsume asked irritably since it was rather early in the morning, Hiashi had insisted that they not have their little talk within her place or his, and chose a Ichiraku Ramen, since at this time in the morning there weren't that many people that went that way.

"I...need some advice..." Hiashi said, '_Might as well get it over with..._'

"Advice? On what? For what? And why me?" Tsume asked.

"Hizashi suggested I ask you...for help," Hiashi said, "I'm in a bit of a quandry at the moment...I do not know how to move forward, how to act..."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with your late wife's look-a-like would it?" Tsume asked, "Cause if it is...then damn you've got it bad. I may not have seen the way you look at her, but for you to act this way...so...what do you need from me?"

"I don't exactly know how to proceed," Hiashi admitted, "Hizashi said that he was planning on simply continuing as being her friend, and not pursuing an actual long term relationship with her...which is basically his way of telling me to try my hand..."

"Your hand...? Have you?" Tsume asked, mischievously.

"Well...no..." Hiashi said, not catching onto what his former teammate was insinuating.

"But I hear that Nirvana can be attained in such a way," Tsume said, "I've tried it myself, its quite a good way to proceed."

"So, you're saying I should try my hand with her in mind, or do I practice with someone else?" Hiashi asked.

"Well, I'd tell you to practice with me, but I don't think you'd want to try that," Tsume said, "Rumors are nasty things, and since I believe that you want a chance with this doppelganger, practicing with me would be a rather bad idea, since I too am unmarried at the moment."

"If you could please stop trying to make him sound like a closet pervert and actually give him some advice, I will try not to drop fleas in your hair," Shibi suddenly spoke from the other side of Tsume, when he got their neither of the two knew, but he was there all the same.

"But I did give him advice," Tsume said, "He should just do as his brother did, and simply ask her out or something like that."

"_Coward_," Shibi whispered into Hiashi's ear, "I don't think he has the confidence in himself to actually do that."

"You did not just accuse me of what I think I heard you accuse me of being," Hiashi said rounding on the man, the Aburame clan head and his other former teammate for that matter, he was prepared to activate his Byakugan.

"I'm just returning the favor," Shibi said, "If I could man up, and do as Tsume suggests, then since you can't seem to do anything but mope, I think that's what you've been doing, not that I keep tabs on my former teammates, then I guess I'm more of a man than you are."

"Stop insulting his pride as a man," Tsume said interrupting Shibi, "I'm sure his pride as a man isn't getting hurt by what you're implying, since I doubt he even remembers what it felt like, seeing as he throws tantrums far worse than a girl."

"You're one to talk, still dressing up as a man," Hiashi said, he was losing his cool.

"Hey, listen here buster," Tsume said grabbing the colar of his shirt, "I may dress like a man, but in the bedroom I'm all woman."

"Now now you two, calm down," Shibi said, "I know it gets hard seeing her look-a-like in the village, especially when she's hanging out with your look-a-like. But c'mon, move on, she'll always be in your heart right? So, move on, get on with your life, and stop your senseless torture."

"The closer pervert is right," Tsume said, "Yes Shibi, I still remember all those little books you disguised as puzzle books in our youth, I bet your wife doesn't know about them."

"Hey! I've got reputation to keep you know," Shibi said.

"Whatever," Tsume said, dismissing Shibi, "Hiashi, just...I dunno, ask her out casually or something, just make sure that you don't treat her or think of her as a replacement for the wife you lost. They may look the same, but its highly unlikely that they are the same person."

"If I wasn't married, had a kid, or was an Aburame, I'd have joined in on the courting of that flower," Shibi said, "We'd be busy as bees in a hive in no time."

"Shibi, keep your fantasies in check," Tsume said, "You never know when your wife might have followed you, and found out about your wandering mind."

"Good morning Shina," Hiashi greeted suddenly.

"What? Where!" Shibi suddenly panicked, which was uncharacteristic of an Aburame, looking around he didn't his wife or anyone that looked like her, "You teme, I can't believe you did that."

"You were annoying me," Hiashi said.

"And to think, I wanted to help you," Shibi said.

"Now now, Shibi, leave the girly man alone," Tsume said, "I'm sure he'll find some way around his present predicament, its not like he has anything to lose at this point."

"What in the world are you talking about," Hiashi said.

"Get with the times," Tsume said, "Everyone knows that whoever gets the girl this time, gets the seat of power that goes with her. In any case, you really have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain. You've already more or less lost your position as clan head, your daughters may go next, since they're more or less still considered as clan heirs, the question is, will they be permitted to stay with the uncaring you who has neglected to find a suitable female figure for them to look up to."

"So...what's it gonna be teme," Shibi said, "Do I need to pull out all the remaining blackmail material I have on you or are you gonna act. Cause you know, the first time we had this conversation I really did have to pull out all sort of shit on you. Hey, now that's an idea, I'll just have to casually let slip that you've been thinking of her in less than civil ways...all seeing eyes coupled with well your robes...there's a lot you might've seen and have been doing."

"I really didn't need the mental image of Hiashi peeping and whacking at it behind closed doors," Tsume said, "Hiashi, hands out where I can see them, those casual robes of your can still hide much movement."

"One of these days, I'm gonna push through with my bug spray threat," Hiashi warned Shibi, "Fine, I'll go have a go with her."

"Whoa, bro you move fast, not even speaking to her save for that one time, and now you're planning on having a go at her? Damn," Hizashi wanting to have some Ramen for breakfast couldn't help but listening in on the tail end of the conversation.

"Zashi," Hiashi said a warning tone in voice.

"Fine, fine, no jokes from me especially in the company of the Aburame closet perv, and the nympho Inuzuka, with gender bender issues," Hizashi teased.

"I'll have you know, I'm all woman," Tsume defended herself, while Hiashi slipped out of the ramen stand/bar/place.

"Oh really," Hizashi pushed on, "When was the last time you wore a kimono? You know the kind."

"What does that have to do with my femininity?" Tsume asked, preparing an empty ramen bowl to throw at the more annoying and carefree twin.

"I think it was last night," Shibi said, "Floral design right?"

He was barely able to dodge as a ramen bowl flew past his head.

"Kidding! I was kidding!" Shibi said, "Mercy!"

"If you had the guts to peep on me, you have the pain tolerance to deal with my punishment," Tsume said as she kneed him in the 'nads several times.

"I'll pay for their ramen," Hizashi told Teuchi, it was a bribe in order for him not to have to feel Shibi's pain.

"-"

"So let me get this straight," Haru said, "You wish to court Ran, yes?"

"Hai," Hiashi replied, they were seated opposite one another within one of the rooms of the main house of the Hyuuga clan head's compound within the private residential district within the grounds of the extensive lands that made up the more or less Uzumaki compound.

"Why are you asking me?" Haru said, "Shouldn't you be asking her? I mean, she may be considered a member of my family, but she is her own person, with the ability to make her own decisions."

"I am asking, just so you know that I will be attempting to pursue a possibly long term relationship with her," Hiashi replied.

"Very well," Haru said, "_Took you long enough..._Good luck, you'll need it."

Hiashi left the _young_ man's presence and went off in search of Ran, and ended up meeting Seigen by the gate of the compound.

"I am well aware of your sudden interest in Ran," Seigen said, "I am sorry about your wife, she wasn't exactly entirely alive at the time, but anyway, good luck. And if you hurt her, I will make sure you know what staring down a bijuu feels like."

"Hai," Hiashi said, there was no backing down now, if he ran, well he would dishonor himself.

A bit of walking later, Hiashi found himself in the company of his twin and Ran, they were once again in Hizashi's dining area, minus any food and Neji.

"Since my dear brother lost his tongue to a cat, I'll do the talking for him" Hizashi said, "We're brothers after all, and twins at that."

"Er...ok," Ran said unsure of what exactly was going on.

"Let us begin," Hizashi said, "While it is unconventional for another to speak on one's behalf, I am confident that all, or almost all, of what I am to say are the things my brother wishes to convery. Don't give me that look aniki. Now where was I, ah yes. My brother would like to spend some time with you to get to know you. The time that he complimented you on your unparalled beauty was not merely a courtesy, but was the truth, or his version of the truth. Such flowerly words are unbecoming of a clan head, or to one that leads the Konoha Hyuuga anyway. But he did indeed mean those words as I'm sure he simply hid the blush that formed on his face after realizing what he said."

"..." Hiashi simply glared at his brother, he was actually slowly losing his nerve.

"Ah..heh...uhm...yes," Hizashi said, noticing his brother's mood, "My brother has been infatuated with you ever since he first laid eyes on you, and the only reason he has avoided trying to woo you himself, was due to the fact that you resemble his late wife that I bet you've got the same birthmark as she did," while he may have been joking he didn't know just how right his joke was, but she blushed nonetheless, "He had been holding himself back as he thought his late wife might have taken it against him in the afterlife...or something like that while personally I too have a late wife, but I still attempted to pursue your affections, ending in my own self realization that I am not the one for your or you for me, which is where my loving cold hearted brother comes in. He has not accepted the fact that his late wife would want him to be happy, find happiness, and not dwell too much on the past and what might have been, which is why..." but he was cut off by his own brother, silencing him with a look and a mental '_Shut up you talk too much, I'll take over now lest you talk til next year_'.

"Would it be possible for you to have dinner with me sometime?" Hiashi finally asked, while not sappy or romantic, it was the thought that counted, "I would sincerely like to get to know you better."

"I thought you'd never ask," she said blushing slightly.

"Damnit Hiashi! Let me see, let me see!" Hizashi was being held down by a Kage Bushin of his twin, and was unable to witness Ran blush a second time due to Hiashi.

#

The two went out a few times, and from those few times it became often, and eventually the three forms of Naruto had to prank a lot of clan compounds and districts due to the rumors which were spread became so far from the truth and so deranged in some cases that people needed to be distracted from the insanity of Hyuuga Hiashi smiling and on occasion blushing. Hizashi greatly helped in keeping the Hyuuga Konoha Elders at bay and unaware of Hiashi falling for somone whom they believed would have been better off with someone they could more easily control.

By the time Naruto's sixth birthday rolled around the Hyuuga pair were officially married, and unofficially remarried but only Ran and the Uzumaki's were aware of that...the Sakujo clan had an inkling but weren't about to spoil such a secret.

The wedding had been officiated by none other than the Hokage, and was held in the one place that a majority of Konoha did not want to even set foot on, the Uzumaki grounds.

Needless to say the only guests were the entire Hyuuga clan, now closer to being unified, the actual unification process began when the Haru's Hyuuga descended on the Konoha branch members during the wedding reception and stripped them of all their clothing during a smokescreen and applied the original protection seal, before redressing them in the clothes of their dates if they had any, and in the cases of the singles dressed them up as clowns. Who knew the Hyuuga twins had coulrophobia.

It was during this ensuing chaos that the Saganiki Kotone and Kirara finally arrived in Konoha, their Suna assigned counterparts also just arrived at that same time. When travelling around the desert without a map, getting lost was quite normal, especially if one forgot to consult with the logistics division about the location of their destinations. The Saganiki were good at necromancy and finding out the mysteries of the past, but directions...only Tenma was of use there, and a select few members that made up the logistics division of the clan.

"How the heck did you get lost!" Seigen shouted, he was a little tispsy.

"Oh, leave them be to enjoy the party," Haru said before dragging Seigen away with the help of Naruto, the core of the whole, and brought him back to where Hizashi was playing strip poker with only his boxer shorts remaining.

Shiro still had all his clothes on, and the Sakujo swore on the honor of their clan not to use their bloodline, the ones that could play around with luck anyway. In the end Shiro was the only one left with their dignity intact.

"How the hell do you have so much luck?" someone asked Shiro.

"Benten is my godmother," Shiro replied, and by that point all who heard couldn't help but take his word for it.


	49. Chapter 49

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter forty-nine**_

Tenma was not a happy part of the whole that was Naruto, he was not happy due to the fact that three of his clansmen had yet to be back from their mission requesting missions. It had been more than a year since they left, and well...he didn't know whether or not to call for a search for them since the logistics division of the clan had informed him that none of the three clansmen had asked for directions.

He needed those requests fulfilled due to the fact that they needed to penetrate the barrier made out of stronger than gale force winds that protected the crater they were surveying and trying to get into. The winds grew stronger with each and every time skeleton scouts were sent in to test the wind speed, and see if there was a change in the randomness of it all.

But during all their attempts to map the place from on high, they were able to map out the perimeter, what they had found out was that the crater they had found was where the Ichibi must have been sealed after the Rikudou Sennin split the Juubi into nine. While there was no way any chakra residue remained, the way the crater looked after mapping it out, revealed that at one point in time the Ichibi must have escaped from its kind of prison. There was evidence that led the clan into believing that the bijuu had pushed itself out using its single tail, this evidence was that the crater was in the shape of the bijuu itself.

Tenma spent every waking moment by the crater's edge, trying to find out how to enter, as well as what they would find within it. For it seemed as if the crater held more than just the Bijuu, as there was evidence that it had at one point in time been some sort of temple.

"Tenma-sama," a clansmen broke Tenma out of his inner musings.

"What is it?" the man sounded like the news was urgent.

"We've spotted the requested teams, they're headed this way, fast," the clansman reported.

"As soon as they arrive, send them over to my tent," Tenma said as he walked in the direction of where his tent lay, "And make sure you bring enough water for them, the Konoha team are sure to have remembered to bring water, while the Suna team may not have."

"Hai, Tenma-sama," the clansmen went on his own way to wait for the guests and prepare the water.

Thirty minutes later the two teams of shinobi of allied villages were ushered into the tent of the Saganiki clan head. Water was brought in a moment later.

"Report," Tenma said once the three that had been sent out stood before his bone chair.

"We got lost," Kotone said, speaking for the three of them.

"Head for the map makers, and pick up new maps," Tenma said, "Dismissed."

"Hai," the three said, then left the tent to get themselves familiar with some maps.

"Now that you are here, we can begin your mission," Tenma said, "Suna-nin kindly follow me, Sakujo-nin, rest up I'll need your abilities once the Suna-nin are done. You may stay in my tent Sabaku no Gaara."

"Hn," the sand user said, and remained standing in one of the corners of the tent.

"Hai, Tenma-sama," the Sakujo team said.

After leaving the tent, Tenma lead the Suna-nins away from the makeshift village of tents, and explained that he needed them to form a tornado of wind natured chakra until they ran out of chakra even with the use of chakra replenishing pills. Since they were being paid, they did as they were told, and the Saganiki-nins brought them the pills when they looked like they needed it.

It took the Suna-nin three whole days of nonstop chakra usage before the pills no longer had an effect on them, but right before tornado they formed could dissipate, the Saganiki clansmen let loose some chakra saturated winds into the tornado making it a whole level of stronger. When it looked to be getting way out of control, due to the lack of wind natured chakra users being conscious, Tenma finally stepped in.

"_**Reverto phasmatic aquilo**_**!**" Tenma shouted, his necromantic powers activating, through them he pulled back the Spirit of the North Winds, and moments later, an explosion could be felt coming from the eye of the storm which the tornado had become. It was akin to a sonic boom, which could be felt from miles around.

A little while later the tornado itself was torn asunder, sending cutting winds in all directions, the Saganiki were only saved due to their quick thinking, and in Tenma's case temporarily dislodging himself from time. When the winds finally died down, in the center of what once was a tornado, stood a naked man, or what looked to be a naked man.

"_Qua est meus vinco?_" the _man_ asked slightly confused.

"I am he," Tenma said, stepping forward, and continued to move closer to the resurrected spirit, whom he had given physical form as the spirit's original form would not last without a stronger environment of magic.

"_Magister, quis est meus nomen?_" the _man_ asked.

"I shall name you Kitakaze," Tenma said, then placed a hand on the _man_'s chest, and flowed some magic through the hand into the _man_, "Learn what I have to teach you, for this is no longer your time, but mine."

Through the connection of the flesh and the temporary transference of magic, the Wind Spirit linked itself to he whom it called master, Tenma had called him back, and Tenma had named him, now he would serve Tenma til the day he had no more use.

"What would you have me do, my master?" Kitakaze asked, kneeling before his master, not a shred of clothing covering his form, not that he cared much for anything such as dignity.

"First I would require that you put on something to wear, now that you look human," Tenma said, and waited for the clansman assigned to procuring some clothes for their latest addition arrived, which he did a few minutes later. The man helped Tenma get Kitakaze into the clothes.

"Follow, me we have some air currents to disrupt," Tenma said, as he led Kitakaze to where his people were preparing to rappel down into the crater, "Fetch the Sakujo-nin and Gaara," he instructed the man that brought the clothes.

A few minutes later Tenma stood at the edge of the crater with Kitakaze right beside him, a number of the members of the Saganiki clan waiting for further instruction, the Suna-nin had already been told that their services were no longer needed, save for Gaara, and since they really didn't care about him, they left him in their company.

"Have the winds die down in front of us, that we may begin our descent," Tenma instructed his new servant, "The rest of you, prepare the tools for excavation, we'll proceed down as soon as the winds are parted."

"Hai!" the Saganiki clansmen and women began double checking their supplies and tools, half of the clan would be investigating the crater, while the rest remained up top.

"Gaara," Tenma said.

"Hn," the red head replied.

"Come here," the clan head intructed, which the red head followed, he could feel his bijuus need to get closer to the man called Tenma, why the jinchuuriki did not know, but he knew that his bijuu held a great hatred for the old man.

"Shukaku wants to end your very existence," Gaara said, "Why is that?"

"Hmm," Tenma said, as he watched Kitakaze jumped into the winds, and caused them to form a funnel spiraling downwards into the crater, "It is partly because I helped in sealing him into the teapot he used to reside in, the other reason is that my great great grandfather was the man that trained the one that defeated its old form."

"Why are you telling me this?" Gaara asked.

"Because you asked, and I thought you needed to know," Tenma said, then grabbed onto the boy's arm, the sands failing to encircle his wrist, "Follow my lead!"

Tenma, with Gaara in hand, jumped off the edge and into the vortex of winds which carried him and the child down to the crater floor, through a crack in it and further into the darkness, farther than he had originally anticipated to be brought. Luckily he had some matches with him, and a flashlight that ran on chakra. His clansmen arriving minutes after he did, in intervals of three minutes each. When the last batch was done free falling, Kitakaze joined his master in the underground cave.

"Map out the area," Tenma instructed, "Light the way, do not enter any larger chambers without my express permission."

"Hai," the clansmen whispered, as to not cause a cave in, just in case, then left to map out the cavern they were in.

"Kitakaze," Tenma said, "Watch over Gaara, until I return, there is much I feel I will discover."

"Hai, Tenma-sama," Kitakaze said, then stood guard over Gaara.

"You may explore a little if you wish, but do not harm any of my clansmen, lest I seal you along with the insane bijuu you hold within," Tenma said as an after thought before vanishing into the darkness, leaving the spirit and the jinchuuriki alone in the almost darkness.

He made his way through a tunnel which his clansmen had failed to see, it was probably due to his magic that he was able to see the hidden tunnel, and walking down it, he couldn't help but feel some ancient magics singing in his senses. There was something at the end of the tunnel, and he was curious to find out exactly what it was.

There were no glyphs on the walls, or clues as to what else could be found in the underground, but he was sure that by the time he reached the end of the tunnel he would know what exactly it was that had drawn him to this place.

"-"

"Shall we explore some?" Kitakaze asked Gaara.

"Hn," Gaara replied, and began to walk away, followed by Kitakaze in some random direction within the underground.

They made their way to the center of the underground of the crater, unknowingly walking through the same tunnel that Tenma had done so earlier. They had no sense of time, but they knew that the old man had been gone a long time.

Gaara felt a little anxious, he didn't know why, but Shukaku couldn't wait to get out, and kept screaming in his head to let him out to play. But there was nothing to kill around, he couldn't really sense Kitakaze, but something told him that the demon in him would not be able to kill the man.

"Tell that abomination to shut up, or I will yank it out and seal it for another eternity," Kitakaze suddenly said irritated, "I can feel its bloodlust from way over here."

"Who are you to tell Shukaku what to do?" Gaara said.

"I am Kitakaze," he said, "I died sealing a similar demon in the part, in a time before chakra. I have all my memories intact, but back then I served no master, but now I serve Tenma-sama. Tell it to shut up, lest I seal the both of you in something smaller than a teapot."

A few minutes of walking in silence, Gaara spoke once again, a hint of surprise in his voice.

"There is silence," Gaara said.

"I guess it knew me from somewhere," Kitakaze said.  
"This demon...that you died to seal away," Gaara said, "What was it?"

"A wind demon, similar to Shukaku," Kitakaze replied, "Why?"

"There is something in the air, it makes my skin crawl," Gaara said.

"Could you repeat that?" Kitakaze asked, as he too began to feel the eery sensation.

"Something in the air is making my skin crawl," Gaara said unsure of himself, "It is a feeling I have not encountered so far."

A few moments of contemplation later, Kitakaze felt a chill in his bones.

"I know this feeling..." he said, "I've felt it before...a long long time ago..."

"What is it?" Gaara asked.

"This place...it also feels familiar..." he said, "Like I've been here before..."

"Maybe you lived here before," Gaara suggested.

"No...this feeling...its..." he was unable to continue as an explosion rocked the tunnel, and the rest of the underground, the source of it was surely at the end of the tunnel. The two ran in the direction of the source, only to find light streaming down from above, as if something had smashed through the ceiling.

"Tenma-sama!" Kitakaze shouted as he spotted his master bleeding on the ground, "What happened?"

"This...this was the Shukaku's burial ground," Tenma said, after healing his own wounds, "It had given the Ichibi some of its sealed power...that thing...gave the Bijuu the power over the winds, same as you...but viler."

"Tenma-san?" Gaara said unsure of the situation, this was one situation that the demon in him refused to offer any form of help.

"This place...I sealed a wind demon in this place...during a time before chakra," Kitakaze said, "Tenma-sama, what did you do?"

"I did battle with it," Tenma said, standing up, and straightening his clothes, "A few minutes after I arrived the floor began to splinter and crack, a few moment later smoke rose out of the cracks, followed shortly by a monstrous creature, one which told me its story, thinking that I had brought its key to salvation, that I was the Ichibi no Jinchuuriki."

"It must have drained the Ichibi of its borrowed power," Kitakaze said, "Gaara, how is the Shukaku doing?"

"There is still silence," Gaara said after a moment, "It is still in me, but it seems to be sleeping, as if having lost most of its energy."

"Well, it looks like the thing is heading for Suna, by the look on its face," Tenma said, the nshifted his attention to his servant, "This monster, it would despise you for its sealing, wouldn't it."

"It would," Kitakaze said, "It should...it was at one point the air pollution of the world, a suffocating mass of air hovering over the world, soon gaining consciousness until it clashed with the four winds themselves. I was the last remaining, battling against its might, and sealed it using up all of myself, into this tomb...I would guess that whoever sealed the Shukaku in here thought that its oppressive would have made an impressive additional locking mechanism."

"Its probably heading towards Suna, due to the fact that the wind users that produced the necessary elements for your resurrection are there," Tenma theorized, "It must have sensed your return, and believed that the elements that brought you back was your new form, else it would have stayed to do battle with you here."

"What do we do now, master?" Kitakaze said.

"We follow it, and stop it," Tenma said, "The world need not deal with something as ancient as you," then turned to face Gaara, "Will you help us? In exchange, I shall help you remove the demon sealed within you."

"Then I will be like anyone else?" Gaara asked.

"In a way," Tenma said, "There is a way to be rid of the Bijuu, but at the same time, while the work of the Rikudou Sennin is finally fulfilled, you will be the equivalent of it, but not a monster as you have begun to think of yourself as."

"How do you know so much about me?" Gaara asked.

"Kitakaze," Tenma said, "Stall your ancient foe, but before than, inform my clansmen of these developments, we will follow shortly."

"Hai," Kitakaze said and half of his body turned into a tornado, one that lifted himself out of the hole in the ceiling and off in the direction of his foe.

"I was once, like you are now," Tenma said, "The reason why you feel so relaxed around me is due to that fact, that and I possess a fraction of the power of the Kyuubi."

"The Kyuubi was sealed in you?" Gaara asked, "You are like me..."

"You have yet to truly decide what defines your existence, which is a good thing," Tenma said, cutting off the youth's sentence and train of thought, "Many view you as the monster that lies within, many before you have also suffered this curse. But none as like you in the sense that your heart has not yet turned to stone."

"What are you talking about?" Gaara asked, suddenly desperate for answers.

"This form you see before you, is one of many that I have," Tenma said, "The Bijuu are beings of darkness, the darkness in man's hearts, laying in wait for a time to rise up and attempt to destroy the world. I almost let my demon out, but thanks to my precious people, I not only held it at bay, but ultimately sent it off to the next great adventure."

"Why are you telling me this?" Gaara asked.

"Because I believe that you too can perform such a miracle," Tenma said, "Finish the work that the Rikudou Sennin started."

"My village hates me, no one loves me there, why should't I accept Shukaku's power," Gaara asked, "I have no one precious to me."

"I am sure that there are people in your village that do not hate you," Tenma said, "But merely fear you, and what you might become."

"What would that be?" Gaara asked.

"A mindless and merciless killing machine," Tenma said, "It is the fate of many that have walked down the paths that we have."

"Then how can I overcome that, I don't have any people I see as precious," Gaara said.

"Have you no brother or sister? I know for a fact that you do," Tenma said, "I also know for a fact that your mother isn't as dead as the world believes. My family is able to cheat death to a degree, your mother was saved from such a fate, but is very weak at the moment, just as mine parents are."

"But your parents should be dead," Gaara said, "You look very old to me."

"As I said," Tenma said, "This is one of many forms, my bloodline is partially to blame for it. My true self, the core of my very being is around your age actually, that is how my parents are still alive."

"Then they are your precious people," Gaara said.

"They and many more," Tenma said, "My clan are precious to me, just as my other selves are, and their families, you too are precious to me, as you have decided to listen to my words, and not that of the demon dwelling within you."

"How can I get precious people?" Gaara asked, he believed that only through experience would be truly understand the words of the man before him.

"That is easy, there are many ways," Tenma said, "I will share one way with you."

"What is it?" Gaara asked, he had no concept of killing to prove his existence yet that would have come later, but not any longer.

"Will you be my friend?" Tenma asked him.

"What is a friend?" Gaara asked.

"A person that you can talk to, enjoy some time with, go to when you have problems, an ear to listen to your woes, and many other things," Tenma explained as best as he could, "I am willing to be your friend, if you would let me."

"Ok," Gaara said, innocently.

"Then come with me," Tenma said, reaching out with a hand for Gaara to grasp, he did, "Let's go."

He then lifted the boy up into his arms and carried him as he jumped out of the hole, and scaled the crater wall, which no longer had that barrier of wind around it. When he landed a number of his clansmen were waiting for his return and for some orders as to what to do.

"We have done the world a great disservice with our actions," Tenma spoke as he let Gaara down, "By resurrecting the Spirit of the North Wind, we have unleashed the reason he had died in the first place. It is now heading for Sunagakure no Sato, to lay waste to it before moving on to another settlement, reaping more death and destruction. I have sent off Kitakaze to buy us some time, it is a demon just as great as the Juubi, the whole which the Bijuu were born out of."

"What must we do Tenma-sama?"

"This being, whose name I know not, it made out of noxious fumes, and sludge from the earth that it had been imprisoned in," Tenma spoke, "Slow its progress until I arrive, but make sure that Suna does not catch wind of it, as it is a problem which the world needs not deal with."

"Hai," they said, and the warriors of the clan, made to use the sand sharks to move faster than they ever could on foot.

"Come with me Gaara," Tenma said to his young friend, "I shall need to make sure that you are kept safe, as this demon might try and use the Shukaku to cause more destruction."

"But won't you get hurt if you fight it?" Gaara asked on their way to Tenma's tent.

"I might, if I am not careful," Tenma said, "But I have to do this, it is one of my responsibilities, I also don't want you to get into trouble."

"Why would I get into trouble?" Gaara asked.

"Because the other Suna-nin left you with me," Tenma said, "They might think that I unsealed Shukaku to destroy them."

"So you are being my friend, for your own selfish reasons," Gaara stated accusingly.

"Yes and no," Tenma replied as they entered his tent, "I am selfish in that I want to be your friend, since I was like you, and do not want you to be alone anymore. I am not selfish, because I am willing to stake my life in defending my precious people, two of whom are in Suna right now."

"So you would die for your friends?" Gaara asked, "Why?"

"Because...it is hard to explain," Tenma said, "You will know when the time comes," he then made to leave the tent, "Now, stay here and be safe, I will come back for you, I promise."

"Wait," Gaara said before Tenma could leave.

"Yes? What is it?"

"How did you beat your demon?" Gaara asked.

"I took its power for myself," Tenma said, "I believed in myself, and in the love that my precious people had for me. Now I really need to go, so stay safe, my young friend, I believe that when the time comes, you will make the right decision."

He left Gaara alone with his thoughts, while he teleported his way to where his clansmen and servant were busy stalling for is arrival, much like how the shinobi of Konoha stalled for the arrival of the Yondaime Hokage.

He had no intention of dying, but as he joined the battle he couldn't help but wonder, how in the world was he supposed to rid the world of this demon, sure the Kyuubi was more powerful, but this one was in the real world, out of someone's mindscape. How was he to either kill it or seal it away. He had next to no experience with such a thing.

'_Tenma-kun,_' he suddenly heard his great great grandfather's voice in his head, it almost cost him his head, '_I apologize for almost getting you killed, but I was surprised when I felt a disturbance in the world...it is still rather early for you to be saving the world, but I guess it is never really too early. Now as for why I have contacted you, as you are now you will be unable to destroy this creature, I am unable to directly aid you, but I can still give you some advice. It had at one time been able give the Ichibi some of its power, some of its darkness, which led the beast into escaping Takeshi's prison for it. It was also able to retrieve the power it had granted the demon, as well as some of the demon's own. The way I see it, this demon can only be destroyed in a similar fashion as that of a Bijuu. Good luck._'

While Ryoku was speaking to his descendant, Tenma was busily disecting parts of the beast, using his bloodline over such a spirit, he and his clan were able to slow it down, and forcing it to actually try and kill them in the slowest ways possible. Already Tenma was mourning the loss of five of his members, five souls that would no longer be with him and the clan on their future adventures.

"Separate and seal its powers piece by piece!" Tenma shoutd his order, he needed to find a way to suck out the thing's power, but he also needed to weaken it like the Kyuubi had been weakened and distracted when he took its power.

"*"

Back at the clan's camp, or village of many tents, the Saganiki clansmen that were not permitted to join the battle waited for any news from the battlefield. When a messenger returned, his body bloody and battered, on his back were two more of his fellows, those that remained in the camp gathered around them to patch them up, and hear some hopefully good news.

They were greatly disappointed in the fact that while the monster was being stalled, they had already lost ten of their number, some wives would never see their husbands alive again. But they were strengthened in their belief of winning, as they heard of their clan head's attempts at sealing away the monster, and hopefully killing it. As well as the rage that he displayed when he saw each loss. They felt his pain.

When Gaara heard the news, he didn't know what to think, but his mind kept returning to the words of Tenma about how he overcame his own demon. So he sat in the tent of his firsrt friend, and tried to communicate with the demon he held within.

After closing his eyes, he found himself within his mindscape, instead of some sort of sewer system with pipes and water all around, he found himself staring at a badly formed seal, one which had a hole big enough for the demon to stick half an arm out of. He looked at the tanuki, and noticed that it looked slightly weaker, its overbearing presence could not be felt in his mind.

So he did the only thing that came to mind, he walked up to the part of it that was exposed and gave it a tug, and that tug became a pull, and so on and so forth, up until the only thing remaining was a hollow husk of the Ichibi no Tanuki.

"_**I didn't think another would try that tactic,**_" Gaara heard something whisper in his ear, and echoing voice all over his mind, "_**Your friend, Tenma, his real name is Naruto, his core lives in Konoha, and truly was a jinchuuriki like yourself. I think it may be time for you to pay him back for helping you.**_"

"Who are you? What are you? Show yourself," Gaara demanded, he had had enough with beings messing with his mind.

"_**Who am I? Who am I you ask, hah, when you die you will know that answer, or you could ask Naruto himself, or Tenma as he is known, called, and lives, in the form you know him as,**_" the voice said, "_**I am here to tell you that your friend may need your assistance, while he may be able to stall and partially seal the creature, I would like it added to my belly, and only one seems to have the **__**ability to end its existence now.**_"

"Who? What?" Gaara asked.

"_**You!**_" the voice replied, "_**This wind demon granted the Ichibi the ability to share power, energy, and thus with your taking up the mantle of such a great and powerful demonic piece, you now have acquired this ability. Use it well, and I hope not to have to eat you soon!**_"

Once the voice and its eery presence vanished from Gaara's mindscape, the young sand-user blinked his way into the real world, and decided on his next course of action. He left the safety of his tent and made his way over to a group of kunoichi that looked to be arming themselves for battle.

"Excuse me," Gaara said.

"Yes?" one of the kunoichi said, it was Kotone," What's up? And don't say the sky."

"Are you going to help Tenma?" he asked her.

"We're gonna try, why you wanna come with?" she asked him in jest, knowing that her boss left him to keep him safe.

"Yes," Gaara said, "I know how to help him."

"Oh, well if you tell me, I'll make sure to tell him," Kotone said.

"No," Gaara insisted, "I have to go with you."

"Kid, he wanted you to stay safe," she said, "Bringing you over there will not keep you safe."

"I don't care," Gaara said, "If you won't help me, I'll find my own way there," and the desert sands began to rise up around him and the camp.

"Well, I guess when you put it that way," she said, noticing the sands forming a platform for him to stand on, and possibly ride on, "Fine, we'll lead the way, but you better not slow us down, our family's out there."

"Hai," he said, with something that he had never before held in his eyes, determination.

They sped off across the dunes for something that seemed like an hour or more, when they finally arrived, Gaara's reflexes caused him to catch Tenma who had just been flung away by the beast.

"What're you doing here," Tenma said, "Its not safe here.."

"I'm here to help, some creepy voice in my head told me what to do," Gaara explained.

"You too huh," Tenma said, "Well then give it a go," then shouted out for all of his clansmen and Kitakaze to hear him, "Fall back! Reinforcements have arrived, and keep those seals away from the thing! Lead it back to base Kitakaze!"

"Good luck gaki," Kotone said, ruffling his hair as it they were not in a life or death situation, then began to run back to camp, while Gaara called upon the desert sands and the winds that were at his disposal.

"Sabaku Rou!" Gaara called out his technique, following his hand, the sands around the temporarily distracted beast rise up from the desert and surround the beast in a cocoon of sand.

"**Eh, Shukaku! You dare defy me!**" the demon roared as the sands tried to cover the beast's mouth, "**You are a thousand years too early to be defying me!**"

"Sabaku Taisou!" Gaara called out closing his fists, while at the same time grabbing hold of the roaring maw of the beast with his Bijuu chakra and pulling the beast's energies into himself, something which enraged the beast further.

It roared loud enough to cause the sands keeping it in place and trying to squeeze the life out of it to be blasted off in some place. It lashed out with a released arm and attempted to crush the not yet exactly genin, but its attempt was blocked by arms made out of sand rushing up to meet its attack. It was a duel on two fronts the physical and the mental. Unlike Naruto who had literal army backing him, Gaara only had Tenma and Kotone's words, but it seemed like they were enough. For a child shrouded in loneliness just that one person was enough, and Gaara had two.

Sure he had already been betrayed once before, but this time he felt something in him telling him that there was no way Tenma would betray his trust, there was also that unmistakeable voice that told him of Tenma's core's name.

There was also the clue of the voice mentioning the word eat. He was sure of it, he had met death, and he believed that he had been spared due to eliminating the Ichibi he held within himself.

He kept a firm hold on the beast with the sands, while the beast continued its one armed assult, keeping track of the swift thing was getting to be a pain in the ass, and it didn't seem like he would be finishing his tug-of-war match with the monster anytime soon. There was no restart in this game of life, and Gaara really didn't intend to lose.

The beast roared out a mighty roar second time, this time the other arm was freed to pursue the insect it was battling. Due to having to track two things at a time, Gaara was beginning to lose focus, his automatic defense was no longer that automatic, it relied on his reflexes and his thoughts both conscious and subconscious.

His sand arms were unable to react in time, and one of the arms was able to get through, as it closed in on him he couldn't help but send out a silent plea for aid. He doubted that anyone heard him, but just before he would have been crushed to death by the clawed hand, he was physically shoved aside by none other than Tenma.

"Damn gaki! I leave for a few minutes and already you're about to die! Focus!" Tenma shouted as he physically pushed the beast away a dark reddish orange chakra forming around his hands, making them look like claws, which he used to hold back the massive black appendage, "Finish it! While I hold this one off!"

"We've been briefed on the change in plans," Kotone called out near the other arm.

"Thanks for the break gaki!" someone shouted, "We needed a breather! So suck that sucker dry while we distract it!"

"**You insects have returned! Where is that bastard North Wind!**" the monster roared out, finally freeing itself from its sandy prison, an action which sent Gaara reeling backwards only to be caught by Kitakaze himself.

"Tenma-sama said to guard you, and he has yet to tell me to do otherwise," Kitakaze said, as he put Gaara down, "So do your thing, and I'll make sure that the brute doesn't get to you."

"Hai!" Gaara said, as he sat down and concentrated on sucking the bastard dry of all its energies, which once empty would be easy pickings for the Saganiki clan.

Once darkness replaced light, once afternoon had gave away to night, the members of the Saganiki clan had finally been able to rest, their battle was finally over, Gaara had won. It was a victory for all involved, but Gaara was the greatest victor of all.

"Hahm," Gaara said, laying on his back due to exhaustion, "I did it."

"Yes you did," Tenma said, "In the morning we will have to return you to your village."

"Huh? Why can't I stay with you?" he asked.

"Because, while you have gained many friends this day, we are a nomadic clan, we move from place to place, and your place is in Suna," Tenma said, "But worry not, we will see each other some other day in the future, because we are friends."

"But," Gaara tried to argue.

"It is not likely that we will be joining a village anytime soon," Tenma said, "But should we ever chose to, it would be nice if the one protecting all of us would be a friend."

"What do you mean?" Gaara asked.

"Your father is a selfish and greedy fool," Tenma told his friends, "He has a lust for power that should not be found in the protector of a people. It will bring him to ruin one day."

"What does that have to do with me?" Gaara asked.

"Undoubtedly, Shinigami-san has told you of my name," Tenma said.

"He did," Gaara confirmed.

"One day, I hope to become Hokage," Tenma said, "It is the highest honor in any hidden village to be given such a rank. It is also a symbol of what I wish to one day achieve."

"What?" Gaara asked.

"To be able to protect my precious people, and for the world to know that I can do it," Tenma said.

"But..." Gaara said.

"It is a little bit confusing I know," Tenma said, "Explaining it is also a little bit difficult on my end, but when you meet my other selves, I hope you will gain a better understanding."

"I guess."

"At present, I have three other forms, and one core form," Tenma explained, "I am the Saganiki form, then here is Haru the Hyuuga form, Seigan the Sakujo form, and lastly the core or my original form Naruto."

"So..."

"As Tenma I serve as the leader and protector of the Saganiki, Haru and Seigen have the same duty, and we each share similar lives," Tenma continued, "I have lived a total of four lives so far, a kind of forced partial reincarnation if you will. The three parts of the whole, myself, Haru, and Seigen, are the smaller scale versions of the dream. We are the protectors of our friends and family. But my dream, as Naruto, is to be able to protect as many as possible, to have the strength needed to protect the world. A grand dream, but one that is not entirely impossible."

"Becoming Hokage is a goal," Gaara noted, "A tool to achieve your real dream."

"You could say that my young friend," Tenma acknowledged.

"I want to help you with that dream," Gaara said, "I will become Kazekage, and help make the world more peaceful, one precious person at a time."

"I'm glad you understand," Tenma said, "We of similar backgrounds are forced to grow up so fast."

"Uhm, before we continue our talk," Gaara said, "I'm too tired to do anything aside from talk...could you..?"

"Yes, wait a moment," he said, then pointed at the ground, "Rise my skeletal servants, we are in need of transportational assistance."

From out of the ground four skeletons with skeletal stretchers rose up, placed the two of them on a stretcher each, then followed Tenma's directions back to camp.

#

"Now remember," Tenma told Gaara before letting him walk back to Suna, "Incapacitate, but do not kill. Send your _victims_ to the hospital, knock them out if you have to. All you need do is show your capacity and ability to not be harmed and that you are ready anytime for battle."

"Hai," Gaara said, then asked, "Can you request me for a mission again?"

"If I have a valid reason to, sure, why not," Tenma said.

"Gaara-kun," Kotone said jumping down from her ride, "There is a civilian clan in Suna who are our allies, they are the Oashisu clan, go to any member of that clan when you feel like the world is simply too much for you and you need a break. They will help you," she then gave him a little kiss on the cheek, "That was for you to remember me by."

"Get back on the shark Kotone!" Kirara called out from the top of the carriage type tent that was set up on the sand shark, the ones they used as transport were rather large.

"Well, Gaara, until next time," Tenma said, then ordered his clansmen, "Move out! Kitakaze! I'll summon you when I need you, but for now, keep watching over the boy!"


	50. Chapter 50

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty**_

"So...?" Shiro said expectantly.

"I have managed to gather enough information," Hiruzen said, "A majority of the Uchiha have betrayed Konoha. According to my source, they are preparing for a coup, one if not stopped will be disastrous for the village."

"What course of action can be taken," Shiro asked, "Not all of them are guilty, and therefore not all of them should be terminated."

"I was hoping that you would be able to pull some strings for me in that department," Hiruzen said.

"What kinds of string are we talking about here?" Shiro asked, "Shipping the innocent ones over to Kiri won't work, we're not too fond of Uchihas either, Mikoto being the exception and maybe her brats."

"Well, is there anything you can do?" Hiruzen asked.

"I really can't think of anything," Shiro said, "And tou-san is not likely to interfere. Is there something your spy isn't telling you?"

"I've thought it over," Hiruzen said, "But it is possible that he isn't being told everything either."

"That bears looking into," Shiro said, "How soon until they put their plan into action?"

"Naruto-kun's ninth," Hiruzen said.

"And you only deemed fit to inform me now?" Shiro said shocked, "That's less than a week away!"

"I had to be sure of the validity of the claim," Hiruzen argued, "It wouldn't do to put an entire clan to death and end up realizing that it was a mistake."

"Fine, I understand," Shiro said, "But you could have at least given me some kind of heads up."

"It is difficult, even for a Kage to dodge his persistent advisers," Hiruzen said.

"I know that," Shiro said, "Tou-san used me as a distraction more than once in the past."

"Then you can imagine how difficult it was to simply find a way to speak with you while no one else was listening," Hiruzen said.

"Yes," Shiro said, "Since the deadline is less than a week away, I propose terminating the criminal elements during the night that their operation is to take place, only the ones we are sure are guilty, that is."

"I will have my operative do it," Hiruzen said, "Wipe out the ciminals, while leaving the innocents alive."

"May they all have swift deaths then," Shiro said, "If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave, in preparation for Naruto's birthday."

"I will try to attend again," Hiruzen said, as he had always spent a portion of the day with Naruto on his special day of the year.

When Shiro had finally left, the Hokage summoned his Uchiha operative Uchiha Itachi, who appeared before his Kage in swirl of leaves announcing his arrival.

"You are to eliminate all the criminal elements from within your clan," Hiruzen instructed, "Only the traitors. We will inform the ones you leave alive of their co-members' treachery. As well as sorrowfully inform the rest of the village of the reason for the sudden decrease in the numbers of Uchiha."

"I understand Hokage-saam," Itachi said, he was holding something secret from the Hokage, something which the Kage would love to wring his neck for when he found out what it was.

#

On the day of Naruto's birthday, while Naruto had his party, which was attended by Mikoto and Sasuke, Itachi struck. Before receiving his orders from his Kage, he had already received orders from the advisors, he was to eliminate all Uchiha, as they all posed a possible threat to the safety and peace of the village.

He even went so far as to enlist the aid of the once mighty leader of the Uchiha, Madara, who had approached him earlier in the week having caught wind of the planned coup attempt.

Itachi, Madara, and a number of Ne operatives struck while the Uchiha were making preparations for their coup. They took out every single Sharingan using individual in the district as that was the sign that showed who was in on the plot and who was not.

Madara had agreed to eliminate his relatives who only now decided to follow in his footsteps, while unknown to the two the Ne operatives took everyone else out. Danzo planned on making Itachi a nuke-nin, while he knew not of the Uchiha's deeper betrayal, he knew enough that the Uchiha were a threat to his future plans regarding Konoha.

Itachi while ordered to kill all the Uchiha, was actually threatened with the life of his brother. His mother was no longer of consequence to him, as she was too weak and meek in his eyes, a slave to a man who ruled with an iron fist within the clan. Little did he know of the things she had done in order for him and his brother to live relatively more normal lives. The sacrifices she made in order for Fugaku to not have lashed out on them during their minor failures in his eyes.

He cared only for his brother and the hopefully bright future of the Uchiha clan, or what remained of it.

"*"

Shiro had insisted that the mother and son Uchiha pair spend the night in the Uzumaki house, which they decided to to, but Sasuke insisted he get something from his house, his moher allowing him to without consulting with Shiro who had left the house momentarily to fetch some things from the surrounding grounds.

Mikoto was lead to one of the guest rooms for her and Sasuke's use by Naruto, who left her there when she told him that maybe he should go to bed, since as soon as Sasuke got back he would go straight to bed too.

When Shiro got back he simply peeked into the room she was in, and saw her in the bed, and so left to go to his own. He took off his bandages intent on replacing them with newer and cleaner ones, but due to the party, he had fallen asleep due to exhaustion, his dreams seemed to be fueled by his need and wish to have been able to give some form of comfort to Mikoto when her innocence was taken from her by Fugaku.

He had an episode similar to Takeshi, in that he actually travelled back in time and displaced Fugaku for that one night, leaving just as he was about to wake up in his own time. Shiro really did belong to one fucked up family.

Shiro woke the next morning feeling that something was deathly wrong in the atmosphere in the village, so he changed from his clothes the previous day, and teleported into the secure room he and the Hokage had used a few days ago. When he got there, the Hokage was already waiting.

"What happened? I know something went wrong," Shiro said.

"My esteemed advisors caught wind of the coup, and went behind my back, ordering or rather threatening my operative with his brother's life," Hiruzen said, "Suffice to say, there are only two Uchiha in Konoha...or rather one loyal Uchiha left in Konoha. At least now we shall be able to inform the Daimyo that his youngest daughter is alive, and the genjutsus on the family will finally be able to be broken, without any of them losing their lives."

"Wait, rewind," Shiro said, "All the Uchiha were wiped out? Even the innocent ones?"

"Every man, woman, and chlid, of the clan save for Sasuke and Mikoto whose body has yet to be found," Hiruzen said.

"She's at home, with Sasuke, I had then sleep over to avoid witnessing the massacre," Shiro said.

"I'm sorry to say, that it appears that you were only able to save Mikoto the sight," Hiruzen informed him, "Sasuke was found at the scene of the crime unconscious. Itachi must have done something to him."

"I can already imagine what," Shiro said, "So..the plan has been changed."

"Itachi is still on the village's side, as there is an organization out in the world with legitimate plans of world domination or destruction," Hiruzen said, "Itachi was convinced into becoming a nuke-nin and being Konoha's spy within the organization."

"At least some good came out of this," Shiro said, "I'll go fetch Mikoto, who is sure to be worrying about her son...I guess I'll meet you at the hospital..."

"I'll meet you there," Hiruzen said, then Shiro teleported out of there.

He reappeared within the room that Mikoto was still sleeping in and shook her awake..

"Wha...what time is it?" she said, not fully comprehending or remembering where she was, then she noticed Shiro, "You know, I had this weird dream and you were in it."

"Not now," Shiro said, "Get dressed, we're going to the hospital."

"Huh? Why?" she grew alert at the mention of that dreadful place.

"Sasuke," Shiro said, "He wasn't supposed to see something...he is the last loyal Uchiha left..."

"What?" she said, changing quickly, "Let's go, now!"

"I'll meet you at the door, I have to inform Naruto," Shiro said, and rushed to Naruto's room, but found that he was already awake.

"I know," Naruto simply stated, "Haru and Seigen are guarding the hospital as the Hokage does not trust anyone at the moment, save for a select few. He is aware of my secret."

"I understand," Shiro said, then teleported to the front door, grabbed Mikoto's arm, and teleported the two of them to the hospital, he remembered to replace his mask before leaving that first time in the morning.

Upon their arrival, the Hokage ushered them to the room that Haru and Seigen were guarding..

"I'm sorry, but by the time we found him he was already unconscious," the Hokage informed he distraught mother, "The doctors tell me, that while he will live through this experience, they don't know when he will wake."

"I could request aid..." Shiro whispered into the Kage's ear, "_He_ might be able to shed some light on that subject."

"It would help," the Hokage whispered back, while Mikoto fussed over her son.

'_Tou-san, in need of assistance,_' Shiro mentally said.

'_I can't believe you could be as careless as your brother,_' was the immediate mental reply.

'_What did I do?_' Shiro asked.

'_Well..the marriage between Fugaku and Mikoto is null and void, since he's never actually had the chance to perform his marital duties,_' his father informed him that he had indeed done as his brother had done, wishful thinking was not simply that when it came to Ryoku's family.

'_Then how could he have the Sharingan?_' Shiro asked, unsure whether he should be happy, sad, appalled, or confused, he chose confused.

'_How does Naruto-kun have four forms?_' was Ryoku's reply, '_Its a magical construct, Itachi did not want to be a burden and wanted to better protect his home, not his family until Sasuke. He wished for the famed and cursed eyes, and gained them through his other bloodlines, specifically the magic one._'

'_Then how do you explain Sasuke?_' Shiro questioned.

'_Artificial insemination,_' Ryoku replied, '_It was a successful first try, it seems Fugaku was so disgusted with her for some reason...something to do with not enjoying their wedding night at all._ _She also had her gut cut open to get both her kids out of her._'

'_You didn't plan this did you?_' Shiro asked, he really had to know.

'_Why in the world would I do that? Our family is fucked up as it is,_' Ryoku said.

'_Alright, alright already, sorry, geez,_' Shiro said, '_Now when does he wake up from this mini coma?_'

'_Force a pepper up potion down his throat, and a calming draught once he wakes, now I gotta go! I have a budget meeting with your mother,_' Ryoku said, and like a phone hung up.

"Well?" Hiruzen asked as he noticed Shiro get out of his trance like state.

"I'll be right back," Shiro said, and with a pop he was outta there, then back again with another pop, holding two bottles.

"What in the world was that?" Hiruzen couldn't help but ask.

"Something tou-san taught me when he was bored," Shiro said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some nasty concoctions to force feed my son's half brother."

"Half what?" Hiruzen said, "You had better explain that later."

"I will, don't worry," Shiro said and approached the other side of the bed, "Miko-chan, kindly hold your son's mouth open, I've got somethings that'll help him."

She complied with his request, which enabled him to dump the first potion which had the immediate reaction of Sasuke waking up, then before he could scream, shout, or whatever, Shiro dumped another potion down his throat.

"I'll be right back," Shiro said, and popped outta there, to retrieve some of Naruto's pranking things, namely the Memory Orb, the one that was like a pensive, and some additional potions, he then popped on back.

"What is that?" Hiruzen asked approaching his friend, and referring to the Orb.

"Its a memory viewing device," Shiro stated, "This way we can review his memory of what he witnessed without needing him to go through the experience again during his still weakened state and frame of mind."

"Well, get on with it," Hiruzen said.

"Now Sasuke-kun, this will only take a second, so just relax," Shiro said calmly, and held the orb in one hand, while he placed a finger on the boy's forehead, and with some magic, not more than a second later he was done, "I've got it all."

"How soon until we can review the memories?" Hiruzen asked.

"Memories? Huh? What?" Mikoto said, a little bit confused, "Will someone please explain the situation to me?"

"The official story is that Itachi massacred the Uchiha clan in the span of one night," Hiruzen admitted, he wan't about to inform anyone of the treachery since it would cause Sasuke and Mikoto to be treated in the same manner as Naruto, except slightly more severe in that it was a more recent event, "Leaving only Sasuke and yourself alive. You due to your absence from the district, and Sasuke for as of yet unknown reasons."

"Seigen, Haru, keep an eye on them," Shiro said as he and Hiruzen walked out the door and headed for a more secure room to view the memories.

"-"

"Its alright now, Sasuke-kun," Mikoto told her son, "Kaa-san's here," she tried her best to cheer up her son, she really didn't have a clue what to do.

"I'm alright Kaa-san," Sasuke said after a while, "I now know what I must do. I will avenge the clan."

"You don't need to have to go that far," Mikoto told her son, "One must not live on revenge, there must have been a valid reason as to why he did what he did."

"Why are you defending him? He killed the clan!" Sasuke said, unable to understand his mother at that moment.

"He is still your brother," Mikoto said, "He let you live for a reason."

"Then I will find that reason, and if I don't like it," Sasuke said, "I will avenge that clan all the same."

"Sasuke-chan, be reasonable," Mikoto said, "Let the adults handle it, it doesn't need to be you."

Instead of saying anything more, Sasuke simply sank into the bed..

'_I am now an avenger, and I WILL avenge my clan,_' he mentally swore, all he could think of were his brother's words, he never really thought about what he wanted to dedicate his life to, now he knew.

"What will you do now, Mikoto?" Haru asked, once he was sure that Sasuke had fallen asleep, "Will you return to your father, or will you live on as an Uchiha?"

"I am not an Uchiha," she stated, "Sasuke-chan is the only one left in Konoha that is."

"That could prove to be problematic...the council is unaware of your true station in life, and will probably force you into marrying someone, in order to preserve the Sharingan," Haru said.

"Your best bet is Shiro," Seigen said, "The both of you already have feelings for one another, and he is the father of Itachi."

"How can you say that?" Mikoto said.

"We have verified it via a paternity test," Haru stated, "Shiro took the place of Fugaku, which is why you enjoyed that night, while Fugaku despised it."

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"We have our ways," Haru said, "Let us leave it at that."

"Remember, he is your safest bet, unless you will allow the village council to dictate your actions," Seigen said, "Simply inform the Hokage of your decision and he will make it so."

"I will think about it," she said, "But I don't think Sasuke will like such a decision."

"Truthfully," Haru said, "I doubt he will care either way."

"What a Hyuuga thing to say," Seigen said as the two men walked back to their posts by the door.

"-"

"It seems that I will have to keep a closer watch on Sasuke," Hiruzen said after viewing the child's memories.

"Yes...you should...but at the same time, I can't help but think that the memory was a little bit forged," Shiro said, "Something tells me that there was an illusion within the illusions...I just can't figure out what it was I felt or rather saw."

For a brief moment, both men had seen a part of another man's face, it appeared for only a split second, with the unmistakeable Sharingan in one eye. Had they gone over the memory a little bit more, they would not have missed such a fact. But as it was, they were in a rush to get to the bottom of things, before the advisory council could do anything so daring again.

"There is something else I wish to discuss," Hiruzen said.

"What is it?" Shiro asked.

"Its about Mikoto," Hiruzen said, "Once the news of this tragedy gets to the full village council, the majority will vote for her remarrying someone, as they believe her to be of Uchiha blood. I think it would be best, if you were to be the one she would marry...the two of you already have feelings for one another."

"You ask her," Shiro said, "I'm game if she is."

"I'll ask her as soon as you leave me to," Hiruzen said, "As it stands I already have the paperwork prepared, all I need are your signatures."

"If she agrees to this, I need you to alter Itachi's birth certificate," Shiro said.

"Whatever for?" Hiruzen asked.

"I have been informed that...I had a Takeshi episode," Shiro said, not needing to elaborate, "I hope you get what I'm saying."

"I see, very well," Hiruzen said, "I'll do that as soon as her signature are on the documents, and you sign as well."

"_It seems that the brothers will be battling one another once again,_" Shiro mumbled to himself before leaving.

'_What could he have meant by that?_' Hiruzen thought as he made his way to Sasuke's room to speak with Mikoto.

Three hours later, Mikoto was no longer Uchiha Mikoto but was Uzumaki Mikoto to the public thanks to Shiro, but the official documents stated that she was Toukou Mikoto, princess of not only Fire but Water as well.

The Potter clan really was screwed up.

* * *

_Genin Minor Arc starts after the break_


	51. Chapter 51

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-one**_

"Fail it again," Shiro told Naruto before the boy went to the Ninja Academy for the Genin Graduation Exam.

"But if I fail it this time, I won't have any more chances," Naruto argued, "What's so important about failing this one anyway?"

"Tou-san sent over a tip about a traitor amongst the chunin," Shiro said, "He'll be using you to get the Forbidden Scroll."

"Shouldn't you be informing the Hokage-jiji about this?" Naruto said.

"I already did," Shiro said, "Just fail the test, and get us some evidence to back up the infomration."

"Fine," Naruto said, "But I mean really, I've been on S-ranked missions already, and I'm not even a genin yet!"

"Just do it," Shiro said.

"Fine, I said fine already," Naruto said and left the house.

It didn't take him that long to reach the Academy, joining him were other students, most with well wishers hoping that they would pass. Naruto didn't have anyone today, since his mission was to fail. Every single graduation exam he had so far attended required him to fail, as the Hokage, the old man, needed him to flush out some traitor. Even as an observer Naruto had to pretend to be a genin hopeful, fail, and expose a traitor. He should have been in Anbu based on the number of missions he had gone on and had been paid for by the village. He was even told they'd be added to his profile when he finally became a genin, whenever that was.

He hoped that the Hokage would at least give him a field promotion this time. He was almost promoted to Chunin once, but the only reason why he wasn't was because his village needed him to officially stay as an academy student. While he would admit that they were fun missions, sometimes such things just got old.

Arriving at the academy, he took a seat at the back of the room, the seat he chose was right beside Hinata, a girl who was infatuated with her clan head, while not shy, she still wasn't all that confident in her ability to harm people. She was simply too kind for the profession she had decided to be in.

Being who and what he was, Naruto was privy to a lot of information about the people of the village, his guardian, Shiro, while not a shinobi of Konoha had managed to fill Naruto's head with everything he didn't know about the clans of Konoha. Naruto's own mental database had everything that his other forms knew, which previously limited his database to three clans, not including his own two.

He knew some of the secrets of the Konoha clans, keeping them in mind just in case he needed the leverage or blackmail material. He hadn't actually used any of it, but he did use his being Haru to get the Hyuuga off his back.

He observed the room as if for the very first time, and came to the realization that a majority of those that were sure to pass the exam, of his class, were from prestigious clans, and not only that, but were the named heirs of their clans. Save for the Uchiha, since Sasuke was the last one loyal to his clan. He was automatically clan head, but at the same time did not have the privileges of one since one needed to be at least Chunin to avail of such rights.

Sasuke, Naruto noticed, didn't really become the upstanding citizen the village hoped he would be. He was more of a survival of the fittest kind of guy, always on the lookout for something to make him stronger. His mother, Shiro's wife, had tried to steer him away from the lonely path of the avenger, but he was resolute and determined to walk that path, a path which Naruto believed would not be good for either of their health, how or why he suspected such he didn't know. But it was probably due to a story Ryoku had told him one night, about the battle against the Juubi, and the aftermath of the death of the first Takeshi.

The genin hopefuls, the children of civilians were not all that important, as most of them would fail the real genin test, a test that Shiro had deemed important enough to inform Naruto of, and warned about displaying his abilities in. Deception is a shinobi's greatest asset, tool, and weapon. Naruto already knew that, but it never hurt to be reminded of it, again, and again, every now and then.

Naruto surveyed the competition, and possible future teammates, the children, the heirs of the shinobi clans of Konoha. Aside from Sasuke, there was his seatmate the representative of the Hyuuga, in another row there was an Inuzuka, then sitting beside one another were the children of the legendary combination with perfect teamwork, the children of the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka. An Aburame sat by himself away from the girls that found him more disgusting than dark and mysterious.

He already knew their strengths and weaknesses, he lived with Sasuke which gave him that knowledge, Haru practically oversaw the training of the youth of the Hyuuga, Haru had on countless occasions already dealt with the Aburame by pissing them off with pranks, he saw the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka team dynamics everyday, and had dealt with those clans as well with some pranks, the Inuzuka he dealt with by way of Seigen as one needed a lot of luck to deal some prank damage on that overly alert clan.

He knew what his classmates could do, as well as what they could potentially do, all thanks to experience with dealing with their parents, the information from Shiro, and seeing them almost everyday in class. But the one thing that separated him from them was that he hid his abilities to the best of his ability, while they showcased theirs. Sasuke was not aware of the depths of Naruto's secrets, since he never cared when Naruto trained or even where for that matter.

Throughout his childhood, the Seven Swordsmen never really did come and kidnap him since they already were able to interact with him on a monthly basis whenever Naruto or one of his forms would visit Mizu no Kuni via Floo. He nearly lost an eye when he visited Kiri for the first time as Haru. It was only thanks to Ryoku arriving when he did that his identities were revealed. That didn't stop some people from attacking him on occasion, when they found out that it was him they simply stated that they were training him to keep his wits about him.

The test came in three parts, a paper test, which Naruto decided to sleep through, a taijutsu exam, which Naruto also slept through making one Nara Shikamaru think that Naruto possible had Nara blood in him, and lastly a jutsu exam which needed him to perform the three basic academy jutsu, where he did all three, the first two flawlessly no handseals required, and the bushin his worst jutsu, no amount of magic, chakra control, or whatever allowed him to use such a jutsu. It was as if it was written in his genetic code that he would not be able to use the thing. Little did he know that none of his relatives on his father's side could use it. Ryoku simply didn't care for it, and used magic, Mei never learned it due to its impracticality in her eyes, the twins already knew the Kage Bushin, even the Rikudou Sennin hid the fact that the only simply bushins he could create were dead looking ones, which was why he used other element bushins and the other tricks he had up his normally long sleeves.

So at the end of the day, phase one of his mission was complete, he flunked the Genin Graduation Exam with flying colors, to the extent that he got the worst grade in the history of the ninja academy, negative one hundred. None of the instructors even knew how it was possible, but Naruto accomplished such a feat. Of course if anyone bothered to check his misson report after the rest of the mission was completed they would know exactly what he had done to get such a low mark.

So he waited as instructed, looking all depressed from failing his third and last time, sitting on the swing in the playground just outside of the academy. He waited for the traitor to make himself known. It was another one of those, 'you poor thing, there's another way to become genin' type of things that Naruto had to thwart. He'd done it all before, each time he was allowed to learn one new thing from the scroll, his control was more than sufficient to use the jutsu within, same thing for the chakra requirement, he had more than enough of that.

Just like his previous such missions, the traitor arrived by the swings like clockwork, selling some sympathy, then explaining the other genin test, a harder one, a more challenging one that very few knew about. He left Naruto with the instructions, a regular set, steal scroll, go to woods, wait there, get promoted. It was so dull already, Naruto had done it many times already. He hoped that this last time would be a little bit more interesting for all those involved.

For once the Hokage actually forgot about he mission, which was why his surprise was so genuine that Naruto thought the old man must have taken some acting lessons. With scroll strapped to his back, Naruto went looking for the usual spot, the spot where he trained in what he learned in the scroll, Kage Bushin were useful for mastering such things. He planned on it being his signature jutsu. He had yet to activate his bloodlines in his core form after all, and needed something that would separate him from his realtives, three of whom had a thing for unleashing their auras when pissed off. His other forms had their own signatures moves as well. Haru had the Jyuuken, mixed in with some Ryokuken as the family referred to that relaxed and bored looking taijutsu that they all at some point in time were taught, Haru only really utilized the part where he looked at his opponent with a bored 'you are unworthy of me taking you seriously' look.

Seigen had his passing through people thing and remembering to get a souvenir from the trip, along with watching his foes fall over themselves with bad luck. The part of Ryokuken that he used was the opening stance, which was simply looking bored, uninterested, and all those other things.

Tenma took the whole 'you are unworthy of my attention' part of Ryokuken to a whole other level. He rarely engaged things himself, opting to summon or resurrect things to do his fighting for him. Getting near him was also a bad thing since he was a fuinjutsu master and would simply slap a death seal on his opponent if his aim was to kill them.

Naruto decided that while Kage Bushin would be his signature jutsu, his signture style would be heavy reliance on the use of high level jutsu and kinjutsu. It fit his nature, his personality, and if time manipulation was not a kinjutsu who knew what was.

So he trained his new jutsu, Ryousei Iku no Jutsu, by simply tapping the target, flesh to flesh contact being necessary, the target will undergo a mind blowing feeling of ecstasy, and will feel weak for a period of time. Naruto didn't know who made it, but he believed that he would want to beat the person up while at the same time learn from him or her. It took him a while to master, as the process required some of his bodily functions to activate before their time. In short Naruto forced his body to enter puberty.

It took longer than usual for the traitor to track him down, but eventually the man arrived, but as Naruto turned to face him, his senses finally realized that it was a different person. Something had changed, the traitors usually worked solo, and without any accomplices. As he turned to face the possible accomplice he was shocked to find Umino Iruka there.

'_Had he been lying to me all this time? Did he really care for my well being, or was it all an act for me to lower my guard?_' were the thoughts that crossed his mind. While he may not have been alone in the world, Iruka genuinely cared for Naruto and saw himself in him on occasion, and tried to encourage him to apply himself more in the academy. He was unaware that Naruto could have made Rookie of the Year any time he wanted to, but had to keep his power secret.

"I found you!" Naruto shouted at Iruka after turning to face the chunin.

"Idiot! I found you!" Iruka said, then demanded, "Why did you steal the scroll?"

"Mizuki-sensei said if I learned a jutsu from it, I'd become a genin!" Naruto said, playing stupid was really annoying, especially when three parts of himself were mature, too mature for the core at times to handle.

"Idiot.." Iruka said, but was unable to continue as a fuuma shuriken hit him in the back, courtesy of Mizuki.

"Mizuki...so it was you," Iruka said, as he turned to face his friend, "Why?"

"Why, to get the scroll of course! And to get a chance to kill the Kyuubi!" Mizuki proclaimed.

"But why!" Iruka said, not seeing why his friend would do such a thing.

"Let's cut to the chance," Naruto said a bit more annoyed than he should have been, he was really tired of the usual monologue his foes went into, "I'm supposed to have the Kyuubi in me, you try and make me give you the scroll, and then I beat you up, now you can either surrender or I can beat you up, your choice."

"N-Naruto?" Iruka said, finally entering the stage of confusion.

"What the hell?" Mizuki said, "What are you babbling about...?"

"I've dealt with your kind before," Naruto said, "Now, either surrender or I beat the living outta ya."

"Eh..." Mizuki said then reached for his other two fuuma shuriken, "Shine!"

He flung the two shurken at Naruto thinking that a mere genin hopeful would not be able to do anything in the situation, and Iruka still in the state of confusion was in no position to be of any help. What he found instead was Naruto slapping the two things aside, then jumping to deliver a vicious punch to Mizuki's gut.

This reaction was unexpected and therefore Mizuki couldn't help but smash into a tree. But other than an aching back he was relatively unharmed.

"_I didn't think I'd have to use this..._" Mizuki mumbled to himself, then began gathering chakra around his body, a seal on his neck glowed, and he began his transformation. Naruto and Iruka weren't expecting something like this, and therefore actually waited for the transformation to end. In the end the Chunin revealed himself as having turned into some sort of human-tiger hybrid.

"You have got to be kidding me," Naruto let out, then decided that if his opponent underwent some form of transformation, then he would to, "Normally, I wouldn't use this, but for you, I'll make an exception."

"**Give me your best shot, I'll let you hit me one time for free,**" Tora Mizuki said mockingly.

"Naruto, run!" Iruka shouted finally getting back to reality, "You're not even a genin!"

"Trust in me a bit Iruak-sensei!" Naruto said over his shoulder, then diving into his mindscape unlocked the cage in which he kept the power of the Kyuubi, keeping the power beind the seal was the only way to keep himself from transforming into something he did not want to look like, as well as look all flaming all the time. It was also sealed away since he really didn't need all that power all the time. It was in a way like the eye patches, masks, and bandages, that his relatives used to seal, regulate, and control, their power.

"**What in the world...?**" Mizuki said as he felt Naruto's chakra simply skyrocket, then watched as a single red tail of chakra formed behind the not-even-a-genin, then watched as kind of chakra cloak surrounded the boy.

"Naruto...you..." Iruka said as he too felt the power, as well as watched the transformation take place, '_What have you done...Naruto..._' he couldn't help but think that Naruto was unleashing the Kyuubi.

"**Let's get this party started,**" Naruto said, then disappeared, small puffs of smoke appearing around him, revealing Kage Bushin, then he began his assault on the tora-fied Chunin.

Luckily for Mizuki, his hybrid form made him faster and stronger, and therefore was able to avoid, if not, then at least take the punishment Naruto delivered without hesitation, Naruto on the other hand did not notice this, but simply kept at his assault. He dared not allow Mizuki to gain any ground in their fight.

Iruka simply looked on and watched as the dead last of the academy's graduating class could transform from incompetent to being able to take on a chunin to low jounin class shinobi.

A little while into the fight, Mizuki finally managed to land a blow that pushed Naruto back, and allowed the hybrid to dispose of the non-transformed clones, then he began his retaliatory assault, causing Naruto to fall back into defending himself from the blows that he didn't really expect to be so strong.

"*"

As Naruto was fighiting Mizuki, and stalling for the arrival of the Hokage and his Anbu, Shiro got a little worried for Naruto and teleported himself to the Hokage's office, as the man desperately searched for Naruto using his crystal ball.

"What's taking you so long!" Shiro demanded after appearing in front of the aged Kage.

"What do you mean?" Hiruzen asked, not wanting to reveal that Naruto had stolen the scroll.

"Naruto should have been back home by now," Shiro said, "Or did you forget that you sent him on one of _those_ missions again?"

The Hokage's eyes widened, remembering that he indeed did give Naruto _that_ mission again. He didn't or couldn't for the life of him figure out how he could have forgotten.

"I can't believe you forgot," Shiro said, then waited expectantly, "Well?"

"I'm searching for him," Hiruzen said, "He's not at the regular place, he's moved."

"Shit," Shiro said, "I'll go look for him."

"No, wait," Hiruzen said, "I'll look for him, it wouldn't do for a civilian to be found participating in a shinobi exercise."

"Fine, but you better find him, and better make sure that he's relatively unharmed," Shiro said, then walked out of the room, worried enough to forget to ask his father for aid, or to teleport.

Snapping his fingers four Anbu appeared in his office, awaiting orders.

"Inform the chunin out looking for Naruto to stop the search," the Hokage said, "Then I want you to head for the usual place, and start searching for him from there, inform me as soon as he is found."

"Hai," they said, then vanished in swirls of leaves, leaving their Kage to continue his own search, forgetting that his summons would have an easier time searching for Naruto than the Anbu would.

After searching for a few more minutes, he got impatient and got into his battle gear, and left the Tower, and decided to personally join the search, as Naruto was his responsibility during such a mission. While not an official member of the Shinobi corps, Naruto did have a kind of rank that allowed him to undergo certain mission. He was the first and only Tokubetsu Academy Student.

"*"

While he wasn't exactly getting tired, he knew that he couldn't or rather shouldn't allow the fight to last any longer, it wouldn't do for Mizuki to finally get a killing blow in due to desperation, desperate shinobi were able to do reckless and sometimes effective things, and Naruto did not want to be on the receiving end of a lecture from Iruka, the Hokage, and Shiro, about carelessness.

So he decided to up the ante for a short while by unleashing his Kyuubi side, all nine tails worth of it, for a split second, as he delivered a paralyzing blow to the hybrid. The power had been out long enough to be felt and picked up the Hokage and the Anbu for the to pin point Naruto's location.

After resealing the power, Naruto dropped down from the trees, and used his new kinjutsu on Iruka so that the man would think the fight a dream, as it wouldn't do for any rumors about his ability to spread before it was time.

"Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said, landing near the young genin hopeful, "Are you alright?"

"Hai," he said, "What took you guys soooooo long?"

"I...uh...forgot," the Hokage admitted.

"Geez, why don't you just hand over your hat already, before you get even more senile," Naruto joked.

"Now see here, I'm not that old," Hiruzen said in indignation.

"Whatever," Naruto said, "I'll just go home now..."

"Here," the Hokage said, pulling out a forehead protector from out of a pouch, "You deserve the promotion."

"Promotion to what?" Naruto asked.

"Tokubetsu Genin," Hiruzen said, "I decided to keep you special."

"Thanks...I think," Naruto said, "Oh, and I knocked Iruka-sensei out...to hide my abilities."

"If you don't mind me asking," the Hokage said as the Anbu picked up the unconscious forms of Iruka and Mizuki, taking one to the hospital and the other to the T&I HQ, and the scroll to the Tower, "What did you learn this time?"

"Ryousei Iku no Jutsu," Naruto said, "D'ya know who invented it?"

"I can't believe you decided to learn that..." the Hokage said, "And have you mastered it?"

"Yeah...looks like I'll be hitting my growth spurt sooner than expected..." Naruto said, "So who made it?"

"Senju Tobirama," Hiruzen replied a little bit embarrassed that the Nidaime Hokage came up with a perverted jutsu.

"Cool...so I noticed that my Oiroke no Jutsu and Haremu no Jutsu, were in the scroll," Naruto said, "Does this mean I'm destined to become Hokage?"

"I'll have you know that I did not ever make such a jutsu," the Sandaime said, lying through his teeth.

"Somehow, I don't believe you," Naruto said, "So...can I learn the remaining two?"

"Fine...I'll send you a scroll detailing mine and the Shodaime's," Hiruzen said, "As well as one of my student's own creation."

"I can finally accept the fact that otou-san, came up with a perverted jutsu," Naruto said, "Since his predecessors also created their own."


	52. Chapter 52

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-two**_

"After dinner, you will accompany myself, to the Uzumaki household for dessert," Haru informed the seoncd family of the Hyuuga, which consisted of the former clan head's family, and his twin's family.

"Why there?" Ran asked.

"We have been invited to celebrate the recent accomplishments of the most recent graduates," Haru stated.

"But...Naruto-kun didn't pass," Hinata said.

"He passed," Haru informed her, "He took a more...challenging exam..."

"But there is only one graduating exam," Hiashi said, "Everyone knows that, the only way for another test to be implemented would be in the form of a field promotion."

"My source tells me it was a field promotion," Haru said, "Don't you believe me?"

"What choice have we, Haru-sama," Hizashi said, he had married a Saganiki kunoichi a year after Hiashi married Ran.

"You didn't push for his promotion did you?" Neji asked, as he knew that his clan head had some pull with the Hokage.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Haru said, "How could you even think that?"

"He failed the exam three times," Neji stated, "How else would he have been able to make genin?"

"I cannot in good conscience share such information," Haru stated, "Suffice to say he has been on the roster of active shinobi for a while now...with a special rank..."

"How? Why?" Neji asked.

"Now that would be telling," Haru said, finished dinner then made to leave, "I will wait for you lot by the gate."

"*"

Seigen had personally congratulated one of his clansmen, the son of a chunin had managed to pass the genin graduation exam. But afterward he headed off in the direction of the Uzumaki House, along the way joining up with Haru and the Hyuugas. When they were a few meters away from the house, they were joined by someone that the Hyuugas didn't know. Tenma had arrived via popping out of the ground followed by Kitakaze. How they got there, no one knew, and Tenma didn't think they really wanted to know. Haru and Seigen found that particular mode of transportation a little bit unpleasant, but since it was Tenma, they simply chalked it up to that persona's quirks.

"What are you doing here?" Seigen asked, even though he already knew, it was satisfying to act like a separate entity, made him feel more normal.

"I came for the free food," Tenma said, then introduced his servant, "This is Kitakaze."

"Interesting," Haru said, "A spirit of wind, didn't think you could actually do that."

"I know, right," Tenma said, as they continued walked, the three clan heads being followed by the Hyuugas who didn't know how to react to an old man popping out of the ground, followed by another man.

"Who's that?" Hinata asked her mother.

"That would be Tenma-sama," Ran said, "He's the clan head of the Saganiki clan."

"Saganiki clan?" Hizashi said.

"They are allies of the Hyuuga and Sakujo clans," Hyuuga Karin, formerly Sakujo Karin, informed her husband, "They're masters of seals, and well bringing the dead back to life as servants."

"So...when you say bring the dead back to life, you mean resurrection, as in full reanimation of a corpse complete with the soul?" Hizashi asked.

"Well, yeah," Karin said, "But of course there are limitations, and requirements that need to be met before such an undertaking may occur."

"Like what?" Hizashi asked.

"Well...they can't bring back the Rikudou Sennin," Karin said, "We asked one of the members before."

"Oh, and why's that?" Hizashi asked.

"To actually resurrect a specific person, a part of that person is needed to bring 'em back," Karin said, "That's all I know, everything else is a clan secret."

"I just realized something," Hizashi said, "But which of the two bloodlines do you have? I mean you rarely use whatever it is."

"Tou-baka," Neji said, "I can't believe you didn't know."

"You know?" Hizashi asked his son.

"Hai," Neji said, "Kaa-san has the Bunshisetsu kekkai genkai."

"And how do you know that Neji-kun?" Karin asked.

"I saw you...that one time...when Seigen-sama colored the former elders neon pink," Neji said.

"Just so you know," Haru said over his shoulder, "I told her to help him."

"He really doesn't like those geezers does he," Hizashi said.

"Well, they're not that old compared to him," Ran said, "They're quite young in comparison."

"At least he looks younger than them," Karin said.

"Cuter too," Hinata added, and Hanabi snickered in the background.

"I still can't believe my eldest has a crush on the ageless wonder," Hiashi said to his brother.

"Shh," Hizashi said, "He might hear you."

"*"

"Are they near yet?" Shiro asked, impatienly.

"They're outside," Naruto stated, "Open the door, Shiro-jiji."

"Right," Shiro said then walked to the door, just as Hiashi was about to knock.

"How'd you know we were here?" he asked.

"Guessed," Shiro said.

"Guessed? Seriously?" Haru said, "I can't believe you couldn't come up with a better excuse."

"So, dessert?" Seigen said, as the group entered the house and headed for the dining room, where Naruto was waiting.

"Heya Naruto!" Tenma greeted his core self, "So, where's the free food?"

"Still in the freezer," Naruto, smiling, said, "I'll go get 'em."

"Sasuke-kun, go back to the table," Mikoto said from the kitchen, "You too Naruto-kun...Shiro! Get in here!"

So they all sat around the table in the room, making the family members sitting near one another, while Haru sat beside Hinata with Hanabi across from her. Seigen was opposite from Karin. Naruto sat beside Tenma, Sasuke reserved a seat for his mother, and Shiro had his name carved into his chair.

"So what's for dessert?" Tenma asked as Shiro set the table.

"Cake," Shiro said, "Just trust me when I say its cake."

"Shiro! Get back here!" Mikoto shouted, as Sasuke snickered a little, hiding it behind a cough, while Naruto openly laughed at his guardian's misfortune, Haru, Seigen, and Tenma joining in.

"Don't you dare laugh, ya twins!" Shiro said as he came out of the kitchen and served the _cakes_.

"This is some weird cake," Tenma said, "Looks more like mac and cheese, a long with some other party favorites."

"I will have to agree with the old man," Hizashi said.

"Its cake," Haru said, taking a bit out of a chicken drumstick.

"I was bored," Mikoto said, placing the remaining dishes on the table, before sitting between her son and Shiro, "Eat up."

"The tea is hot chocolate," Shiro said as an after thought, "The sake is too."

"The only thing missing are party hats," Tenma said.

So Haru and Seigen snapped their fingers which caused party hats to appear on everyone's heads, surprising the real guests.

"How in the world?" Hiashi said.

"Magic," Naruto, Haru, Seigen, and Tenma said at the exact same time.

'_Creepy..._' Hiashi, Hizashi, Ran, Karin, Mikoto, and Shiro thought at the same time, while the kids didn't really care.

"Ano...how are the teams chosen?" Hinata asked amidst the chatter that filled the room after a few moments.

"Your academy instructor suggests team placements to the Hokage," Hiashi explained, "The Hokage get the final say, but usually the Rookie teamed up with the dead last, and the top kunoichi."

"Hey Sasuke! We're gonna be in the same team!" Naruto said from his place at the table, while eating ramen flavored cake that looked convincingly like ramen.

"Hn," he said, then thought '_Just my luck..._'

"Is that all?" Hinata asked.

"As far as I know," her father replied, "I never really did bother to ask why I got my genin team..."

"You think it would be too late to apply for the position of Jounin-sensei?" Seigen wondered.

"You teach? Gimme a break!" Tenma said.

"Its quite improbable and impossible," Haru stated.

"You may know how to lead a clan and train your clan members in the use of your kekkai genkai, but we four know you wouldn't have the patience required to train three genin," Naruto said, no one really expecting that.

"What he said," Tenma and Haru said pointing at Naruto.

"Three against one," Shiro said, acting and looking like a referee, "Seigen loses!"

"It was hot chocolate flavored sake, wasn't it," Sasuke said to his mother, "You did the same thing on my birthday."

"I did?" Mikoto said, "I can't really remember."

"_Figures_..." Sasuke mumbled to himself, while Hanabi tried the sake, "Hey! Don't drink that!"

"Why not?" Hanabi asked, trying to get the bottle back from Sasuke.

"Its real sake," Sasuke said, "Its not for little kids."

"Why?" Hanabi asked.

"Because..." Sasuke said, "Because you're not old enough."

"Why?" Hanabi said, then took a sip from another bottle.

"_Why do I even bother...?_" Sasuke said to himself, as he watched the brat turn red like a tomato or a strawberry and start poking him a la jyuuken as her cousin tried to get her away from him. The older boy simply didn't really like Sasuke for some reason.

"Hey! Give that back you teme!" Hiashi shouted at his brother who had drunkenly taken his twin's bottle of sweet sake, their wives paid them no mind as they gossiped amongst themselves, while Naruto engaged Hinata in a staring contest.

"Hey! You cheated!" Hinata shouted after she blinked from shock, Naruto had swapped his baby blue eyes with Haru's white eyes for a split second.

"How in the world did I cheat?" Naruto said, knowing that while he did it would not do for him to admit it, "Can you prove it?"

"He didn't blink," Haru said to her, "I would have called it had he," of course he was taking his own side in the conflict.

"Two against one!" Shiro said, pointing at Hinata, "You lose sucker!" he was drunk on hot chocolate flavored sake.

"_I wish,_" Haru said to himself, which Hinata heard, causing her to faint, which was what Haru intended to happen knowing that she was infatuated with him, "Time to begin aging again I guess..."

"Probably for the best," Seigen said, "Though I wont myself, I look old enough as it is..."

"I agree," Tenma said, "If I grow any older, I'll be like one of my servants, the bony kind!"

"I don't really have a choice," Naruto said, no one was paying them any mind.

By the time that midnight arrived, Sasuke had to be pulled away from Hanabi, both of them were rolling on the floor pulling each other's hair. Hiashi and Hizashi were knocked unconscious by their clan head, their wives then dragged them out of the house, Neji following a short while later as the reason why he had not participated in the brawl on the floor was due to him getting knocked out by the just as spiked hot chocolate that resembled tea, but was really mixed in with sake.

With most of the guests gone, Mikoto dragged her son up the stairs as Shiro proceeded to take Hanabi back to her home. Naruto's other forms faded, he finally learned how and managed to master how to do that, then for the first night in a long time, he went to his room to sleep, for once whole.


	53. Chapter 53

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-three**_

"Team seven consists of Haruno Sakura," Iruka was announcing the new genin teams of the recent lineup, "Uchiha Sasuke," many squeals and groans were heard all over the room, "and..." Iruka looked around the room and couldn't find the third member of the unlucky squad, unlucky since their jounin sensei was known for failing students, "Naruto..._I'm going to torture him for this..._" he mumbled the end of his annuoncement, which only a select few managed to catch.

When all the teams had been announced, Iruka dismissed the graduating batch for lunch, but told them to return after an hour to meet with their new senseis. With that done, Iruka jumped out the window and began his search for the single and only wayward student he had ever had, one that reminded him of himself in some ways.

He scoured the village for Uzumaki Naruto but could not seem to find hide nor hair of the young Tokubetsu Genin in any of his usual haunts. That was until he chanced upon a shock of blonde fighting in a training field, it was the blonde's opponent that caused Iruka to actually freeze up in fright. The Monster of the Mist had somehow gotten his way into the village without alerting any of those in charge of village security.

He couldn't believe what he was looking at or seeing, Naruto was holding his own in a kenjutsu battle against one of Kiri's foremost and most wanted nuke-nin and masters of the blade. Iruka theorized that the only reason for Naruto to not be on the losing or winning side was due to kenjutsu being the only thing being used. He was only able to theorize since had was paralyzed on the spot not only due to the sight of the fight, but also due to the concentrated killing intent being spread out across the remote training field by both combatants.

"You're getting slower gaki, maybe I should cut off your legs and let you grow a stronger pair!" Kisame suggested.

"I'd rather keep my legs," Naruto replied while ducking under Samehada easily avoiding the chakra sucking sword, "I'll improve them on my own time."

"If you say so," Kisame said, "I like hardwork myself!"

The two then continued to trade blows, neither one of them aware that they had an audience in the form of a Chunin academy teacher that saw Naruto as one of his own precious people.

It didn't take much longer for Iruka to snap himself out of his pralyzed state as he saw that the tide of battle was moving in Kisame's favor, he couldn't allow such a promising youth to fail in his fight and potentially die at the hands of a man that could very well be called a walking and talking piece of sushi. He snapped out of his paralysis and struck out suddenly, catching the Kiri-nin off guard, and causing both to stop their fight and separate the Konoha-nin from the Kiri-nin before one of them really hurts the other.

"Calm down Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said as he attempted to get into the man's guard to knock him away from Sushi-san, it was really hard to believe that Iruka wasn't a Jounin at that point in time, "He's not a bad guy...sort of!"

"Calm down Chunin!" Kisame shouted as he parried each and every one of Iruka's continually increasing kunai strikes, he was growing faster and faster by the second, and neither of the two, nuke-nin and genin, knew how or why it was happening.

It is said in some circles of academical thought that there are some Kekkai Genkai that activate in situations that push the body of the bloodline holder to go past its body's limits forcing these potential abilities to surface and augment the individual's growing need to become something more. This was one such situation, Umino Iruka was going through something like that, excpt that the history of his family never said anything about him really possessing something, it was a rather extremely dormant Kekkai Genkai, and only manifested in the last teacher, by profession and choice, of the clan. With Iruka being the last one of such a clan alive, and most former and presently dead members unaware of the requirements of unlocking their bloodline, or the possible ones that they had, the knowledge of even possessing one had been lost to the anals of time.

It was like he was swimming with the way he weaved in and out of Kisame's reach, and with the way he kept moving closer to his goal, which was saving Naruto from an S-class threat, even though Kisame really wasn't aiming to harm the genin. They were only training for a possible future encounter, since Kisame and a few other Kiri-nin were given these S-rank missions that required them to put a slash mark on their forehead protectors.

Kisame had the honor of infiltrating Akatsuki, and keeping the bijuu out of their reach, even though one of the bijuu was no longer among the land of the living, or rather two of them for that matter. Both the Ichibi and the Kyuubi were no longer existing in the world of mortal men and women as their souls had finally been claimed by the Shinigami thanks to their former hosts who now held their respective powers.

Naruto decided that instead of standing around seeminly helplessly as two of his precious people fought each other, or more like one fought while the other defended, he would need to act. Calling up his magic he tapped Iruka with a full body bind charged hand which sent the chunin crumpling to the group as stiff as a board.

"Thanks, kid," Kisame said, as he dropped to the ground himself and pulled out a canteen of water to sate his thirst due to the intensity of his blocking and parrying.

"Sorry about that Iruka-sensei," Naruto said to the academy instructor, "You weren't letting up even when I tried to get you to stop. Sushi-san's a friend of mine, he's not as bad as the bingo books make him out to be. He was just making sure that my skills hadn't rusted, you just happened to arrive at a bad time, and probably heard our taunts..." he scratched the back of his head a bit unsuredly, "It's all a big misunderstanding. Hehe."

"..." the man just glared at his former charge, he couldn't move which meant that he couldn't talk either, which was why he glared. No man liked the feeling of helplessness unless one was into that kind of stuff.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck or head again, chuckling nervously as he unbound his sensei, and kept his distance from the man, but between the two higher ranked ninja just in case.

"Mind explaining to me what just happened? Or do I have to ask Hokage-sama about it?" Iruka said, or more like demanded what with his veiled threat and all.

"Ah...see...you know what, my time is drawing near, I must go to the academy before I am late for the arrival of my jounin-sensei," Naruto tried to get away but was pinned in place by Iruka's glare, "Alright, alright. Sushi-san's a family friend, Hokage-jiji knows about him, just not about the part of him being here. He was just checking to see if I'd been improving or keeping myself in shape. I've known him for a good part of my life."

"Say I believe you," Iruka said, "Or I'd like to believe you, how is he a family friend?"

"He works for Shiro-jiji's kaa-san," Naruto said, "Look, you can just ask Hokage-jiji about it, he knows about my family situation as well as the complexities of it all. Might as well let one more person into the inter-country secret."

"I shall be going to the Hokage right now," Iruka said, "Though I am rather disappointed in that you aren't taking your career seriously, not showing up to the team announcements and all. You had better hope that your story checks out, else you will be in very big trouble Naruto."

The chunin then left the two companions alone in the training field.

"Ouch," Kisame said, "That guy must be really important to you, for you to want to share your secrets, huh."

"Yeah," Naruto said, "He's one of my few precious people within the village."

"I could see that, what with the way he attacked me thinking that he was defending you," Kisame said as he got up, "Well, looks like I've got to go, my partner'll be missing me soon. So I'll see you whenever."

"Yeah," Naruto said as he banished his sword home, and jumped up into the trees to head on over to the academy hoping that he wasn't too late for the meeting with his team.

As Naruto made his way to the academy, Iruka made his way to the Hokage's office he was worried that Naruto had gotten himself into something bigger than he could handle, he still thought of the young tokubetsu genin as not really all that ready for the world, and all the hardships that it had for such young and inexperienced youths. He was rather overprotective of his young former charges.

"What a surprise Iruka-kun," the Hokage greeted Iruka as the man entered through the window, "I didn't expect you to follow in any of my student's footsteps and come in through the window," he then noticed that Iruka seemed troubled, and so ordered his Anbu to leave him for the time being, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Naruto," Iruka stated. That really got the Hokage's attention, and made the man activate a number of seals around the room in order for no one to be able to listen in on the conversation. Anything that had to do with Naruto was to be treated with the utmost secrecy.

"What about him Iruka," the Hokage said, "What happened to get you into this state?"

"He didn't come to the academy for the team assignments," Iruka informed his Kage, "So after the teams were announced I went to go look for him only to find him fighting against Hoshigaki Kisame, I thought that he was fighting for his life, until he somehow paralyzed me and stopped me from defending him."

"And..?" the Hokage said for him to continue.

"He said some things, that it was training and that the kiri-nuke-nin was a friend of the family's," Iruka informed his kage, "As far as I know, Naruto's only family consists of Uzumaki Shiro, Mikoto and Uchiha Sasuke."

"There are things in Naruto's life that have been factors in why information on his family has been kept secret," the Hokage said, "Did he say anything to you? Anything else?"

"He said something about letting someone else in on the secret or something like that," Iruka said.

"Well, if he feels that you should know, then who am I to keep such secrets from you," the Hokage said, "Please remember that what I am about to tell you is even bigger than the secret that Naruto is supposed to be Konoha's jinchuuriki."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Iruka said, and sat when he was told to do so, the Hokage sitting behind his mahogany desk himself, and began to share Naruto's familial secrets with the man that Naruto decided to let into the secret about his heritage.

"*"

Naruto arrived at roughly the same time as his jounin-sensei did, Hatake Kakashi was a little bit more than pissed off that a mere genin had dared be later than him, and didn't have a good reason for it either. He didn't believe Naruto when he told the truth that Iruka had kept him away from the academy of that he had been training in a remote training field with the infamous Hoshigaki Kisame. It was an unbelieveable tale, due to Iruka's reputation in the village and the likelihood of a genin surviving a battle with an S-class shinobi.

He not only told his assigned genin that his first impression of them was that they were useless wastes of space and shouldn't have been allowed to wear the symbol of their hidden village. He went on to tell them that not only did he hate them at first glance, but that Naruto was just another nuissance that didn't deserve any attention at all, that he should just crawl under a rock and die. He continued to list down all manner of degrading words that he could think of, as well as insults to their beings and their pride as he could list down in such a short amount of time. Then he proceeded to tell that he would be waiting for them on the roof of th academy and they had better not be late lest he revoke their shinobi licenses.

Both Sasuke and Sakura knew that what the man had said had been uncalled for, but they couldn't help but blame Naruto's being late for the man's behavior, and didn't even allow him to apologize to them for being late, and didn't hear his offer to get them to the roof faster. While Sasuke had an inkling of what Naruto was capable of, he decided that his pride was more important. Sakura simply followed the ever brooding boy's actions and ignored Naruto, who decided to not argue and simply teleport to the roof to wait for his teammates, and in doing so found that their jounin-sensei was not there. So he simply waited for his three other teammates to arrive.

He decided to use the time he had while waiting for his teammates to examine how his life had been so far. He knew that his life of fun and games had finally come to an end, that it was time to take life more seriously, even though he knew that his first missions wouldn't be dangerous at all being the D-ranks that they were, but he still needed to take them seriously as they were supposed to help when it came to improving teamwork and boost camraderie among teammates. He knew this due to being Haru, Seigen, and Tenma, all three sub-forms had loads of experience working with others, most especially Tenma who relied on others when fighting.

He mentally listed down all the abilities, skills, spells, and jutsu, he had at his disposal as he continued waiting. He was making himself more aware of the fact that the road to being great had finally started to get a little bit more rocky. Even though he now had a more realistic chance to prove his worth to the village and the world, the challenges that were ahead of him were sure to be more challenging than the ones that had appeared before him as of late.

He had been informed by his great great grandfather that the life that anyone in their family was one that was never normal or easy, they were all meant for great things, but they had to work hard for these great rewards and also were supposed to expect difficult times ahead.

He had grown up to the tales and exploits of his still living ancestors, of what they did, as well as what his parents had gotten up to back when they were still up and about. He still longed for the day that he would get to actually talk to them again. He couldn't wait for hear them tell him that they were proud of him face to face, and not just that they believed in him in his mindscape like they had done those year ago when he had faced off against the Kyuubi with their help and won.

He had a lot of things to think about while he waited for his rather slow to arrive on the roof teammates, one of which now that he thought about it, was none of the than the legendary perpetually late Hatake Kakashi, famous in the village for being late for nearly everything save for the release of the latest Icha Icha novel.

He created a clone as he was waiting, and sent it off to get him some muffins to munch on from home. It teleported from the roof to the house and came back just as fast, and handed Naruto the muffins before taking a bite out of one itself then poofing away leaving its creator to wait out the arrival of the still missing teammates.

He waited and waited and waited for their arrival, he couldn't tell how much time had actually passed but by the way that the birds and the bees were flying so slowly, he came to the conclusion that one of his own Kekkai Genkai was acting up again, his time related one.

'_This is going to be one pretty long wait..._' he thought to himself as he still wasn't much of a master when it came to the time manipulation thing, not a master compared to the head of his bloodline that is.

"*"

"This is...boring...I need some more adventure in my life," one Ryoku said as he looked out the window of his office, below it a number of would be assassins lay in a pile, "I kind of miss going around and beating the crap outta random clans..."

His court assigned assistant didn't comment and simply continued to do his job, which was to add paperwork to the Daimyo's desk and retrieve the already finished ones to be taken to their designated departments to be filed or whatever. He couldn't understand why his daimyo would want more excitement in his life. He had already witnessed the man dispatch countless assassination teams this day alone, and even beat the crap out of a Yakuza family that had tried to muscle their way into the court.

He had even witnessed a number of those Summon Bosses come crashing down, dogpiling the Daimyo, during a routine check on one of the ports of the country. The man didn't bat an eye at the appearance of the boss summons and even reprimanded them, like they were beneath him or his subordinates. The assistant really couldn't understand how his boss could want more of such things in his life.

"I know what you're thinking," Ryoku told his assigned assistant, "You think I must be nuts wanting more excitement in my life," he held up a hand to stop any words of protest to escape from his assistant's mouth, "Put a sock in it, I know you were thinking it. I used to be a real wanderer, roaming the world, going from place to pleace, as a free spirit. A real adventurer I was. I lived like that for a while, relishing in the freedom that wandering gave me. I'm not regretting becoming the leader of this land, but I just can't help missing the adventurous life."

"If I.." the assistant began to say but was interrupted by a general of the land's army barging into his Daimyo's office, looking more than simply troubled.

"Speak," Ryoku said, not looking away from the window his gaze was intent on leaving through, if it wasn't important, "And it had better be important."

"Two S-class nuke-nin entered our biggest port city and are holding it hostage demanding that the Sanbi be handed over to them, else they shall level the city to the ground," the general said, "We have until the end of the week to give into their demands."

"Is that so," Ryoku said, delving a bit into his sage state which allowed him to travel the world faster than time would normally allow, and view exactly who it was that was holding one of his country's major sources of income hostage.

"Yes sir," the general said, "What would you have me do about it?"

"Has Kiri been informed of this threat to the country's continued peace and prosperity?" Ryoku asked.

"Yes sir," the general said then hesistated in continuing to speak any further.

"And..?" Ryoku said expecting more of an answer than that.

"Well...Kiri doesn't know what to do seeing as they claim that only you have authority when it comes to the bijuu bits," the general said.

"Great..." Ryoku said and got out of his seat, "Inform my wife that I shall not be home for dinner...I have some nuke-nin to discipline...**personally**_**"**_

It was with that tone of voice that the assistant decided that he wanted to be transferred to a less prestigious post. His Daimyo could be downright scary sometiems. The general also prayed to whatever gods were listening that his daimyo wouldn't lash out at him for whatever reason there was at the bad news.

He left his office with his assistant and the general trailing behind him wondering what he meant about disciplining the two dangerous nin personally. They were unaware of his past, both having been relatively new to their positions, they knew not that their daimyo had at one time been the Yondaime Mizukage, as well as the other things he had to his name.

As he walked out of the palace his physical appearance began to undergo an unmistakeable change, his daimyo robes morphed into the dragon armor mostly associated with his Ryuumusha Ryoku form, along with the other features. By the time he reached the outer courtyard where some samurai were standing guard, he had gone through the transformation from daimyo to the Dragon Warrior.

"D-Daimyo-sama!" the samurai said startled at his changed appearance, as well as the look of excitement he wore on his face.

"General, I would advise you to inform my wife that I shall not be returning until this threat is...kicked out of my country," he told the general without looking back, "No one messes with my country and gets away with it."

With those words he took a running start, and with every step a part of his anatomy morphed, he gradually transformed into his animagus form.

"Inform the Ootori of this development," the general ordered the Daimyo's assistant, who scampered off, things had gone far more weird than he had been prepared for, the general then barked out orders to the loitering samurai, "Get your rears in gear! Where the daimyo goes we go, unless he's got an escort with him already!"

"Hai!" the samurai said as they rushed about, and before any of them knew it they were riding their horses on their way to the port city that needed saving. A few meters or so in front of them, in the sky flew their daimyo in dragon form.

His war cry was heard throughout the land, even over in Kiri Mei could hear her husband's roar, whether it was a roar of anger or joy at the prospect of actually fighting again, she wasn't sure. But just to make sure that her village wasn't seen as useless during such a crisis, she sent Kaguya Shiki and Minami Usagi to the port city to back up the army that was heading that way on the pretense of being their daimyo's honor guard.

The two swordsmen had a member of the Ootori clan summon them something to travel to the city in question much swifter, and as soon as that was over and done with they too were on their way. Who knew that otters could move so fast.

As Ryoku drew closer to the city, he knew that these two young upstarts were not on the list of people he couldn't personally deal with. These two members were known to the shinobi world as Kakuzu and Hidan, the immortals of Akatsuki. They didn't know what was heading their way until they were blown away from the city by a blast of wind so powerful but so accurate that they were the only ones to be blown onto the water by it. The gale force winds were sent by a single beat of Ryoku's massive wings.

The people of the port city didn't know what to think when they saw the massive dragon hovering overhead. It was about at the time that Ryoku zoomed away in the direction of the two supposedly immortal men that the daimyo's honor guard arrived at the gates of the city, dismounted and dashed their way into the city and made their way to the harbor, directed by some of the civilians living in the city.

Soon after the samurai arrived, Shiki and Usagi too arrived and they took to the rooftops and made haste towards the harbor where they were sure to find out where exactly their former direct superior could be found.

The additaional support to the city found each other at the docks, they bore witness to a dragon seemingly playing with the two nuke-nin. He was tossing one above the waves, while the other was flung hither and tither by the dragon's tail.

"That's it!" Kakuzu was heard shouting, but before he could launch an attack against the dragon he found himself clashing with Shiki and Usagi who had decided to run on top of the waves and do their job, "Who the hell are...no way..."

"Yes way mummy man!" Usagi shouted as she unleashed her blade which she tried to use to wrap around the bounty hunter whose greatest claim to fame was having clashed with the Shodaime Hokage.

Shiki unleashed a porcupine like forest made completely out of bone on the man that had a habit of adding people's hearts to his collection, as well as their bounties to his bank account. The man, while able to handle multiple opponents at the same time, just couldn't manage to have an opening to begin his counter offensive, since the duo seemed to cover each other's weaknesses quite well.

'_**Run my servant! Run! This ryu is way beyond your level of skill to defeat!**_' Hidan could hear his god screaming directly to his mind, it was panicked and it was really urging him to run away from a battle, '_**Even the Shinigami fears this dragon!**_'

Jumping around the pillars of fire and ice that were being called into existence by the draconified Ryoku, Hidan made his way away from the dragon in an attempt to do as his god ordered him to. He didn't know that Ryoku really could just kill him with but a thought, but had decided to play with him just like how Killer Whales played with their food before eating.

"I'm rescinding my plans of holding the port city hostage," Hidan shouted over his shoulder as he desperately tried to beat a hasty retreat, and as far away from the dragon of fire and ice that cotninued to pursue him, "My god does not feel that you are a worthy or worthwhile sacrifice, and you can keep the bijuu! Someone will, in the future, come to fetch it! But it won't be me! No way!"

"**Shut up,**_**" **_Ryoku roared and blew an insanely intense stream of flame in the supposedly immortal man's direction as he dived underwater which proceeded to boil him alive, but didn't kill him.

"Looks like I'll be having to beat a hasty retreat and fetch my partner," Kakuzu mumbled, then jumped away from the duo of swordsmen, "I'll remember this, and in the future I shall be adding your bounties to my list of accomplishments!"

He then ran away, and fished his partner out of the water even as Ryoku breathed out a bunch of fireballs as big as the heads of the Hokages carved on their mountain in Konoha in the two nuke-nins' direction.

With the two away from Mizu no Kuni, Ryoku made his way back to the capital, it hadn't taken him as long as he thought it would. He had overestimated his opponents again, and had lost himself in the fun of it, failing to take into consideration the effects that his appearance as a dragon could have on his subjects, not that it really mattered to him in the end. No one need know that he had been the dragon, and his samurai were smart enough to refrain from spreading the word about it.

The samurai had kept the civilians away from the fighting, which made them look like they had been sent to really protect the people. While the shinobi were hailed as the heroes of the day, the civilians believeing that they had been the ones to summon the dragon to the city's aid. It wasn't made known to anyone that Ryoku had been the dragon.

Mei had, upon Ryoku's return, berrated him about being more aware of the effects of his actions on the country as a whole. It would look bad if the daimyo had to act during every crisis, it would make Kiri look a bit useless to potential clients with regards to the quality of warriors that it produced. Ryoku was lucky that he had such competent soldiers.

He blamed his incompetence and slight negligence on his boredom.

"I'm sure that things will liven up eventually," Mei told him after she had berated him, "So you'll have to stick to doing paperwork and whatever else you do with your time as daimyo, just like I have to cope with being Mizukage."

"*"

Naruto was forced into waiting for a long time. He ended up sleeping only to wake up at around dusk, which was the time that his teammates decided to show up. It seemed that Shiro had heard what the jounin had said and went on a pranking spree on the man as he made his way back to the academy after ditching the team for what he planned on being half an hour.

Sasuke had been sidetracked from getting to the rooftop by his kunoichi companion who decided to let her inner self out to play, which caused Sasuke to think that the kunoichi wanted to have her way with him. The two of them ended up running around the village several times, proving that girls were not to be underestimated.

"What took you guys so LONG?" Naruto shouted his lungs out, literally, he had to shove them back in through his mouth, "I've been waiting for forever up here!"

"..." all three didn't know what to say.

"Well? I'm waiting," Naruto had this look that made it nearly impossible for the three to feel anything other than guilt, "Whatever! Nevermind, not like it matters."

"Well since you blonde deadlast no longer has any complaints," Kakashi said, "Let's begin by introducing ourselves. So, who wants to go first?"

"Why don't you start sensei?" Sakura asked, "So we know what to do."

'_She's supposed to be the top of her class when it comes to smarts?_' Kakashi couldn't help but think to himself, while Naruto sweatdropped, and Sasuke couldn't really bring himself to care.

"Ok...it it will make you feel better," Kakashi said, then proceeded to just tell them his name without really revealing anything more to him. He didn't think he would be passing them anyway, he was unaware of Naruto's status having not read what parts of his file weren't confidential.

"You next cotton candy head," Kakashi said as he cleaned his nails with a kunai.

Sakura did her thing, which just proved that she wasn't taking her own career choice seriously. Sasuke fared a whole lot better, but both Naruto and Kakashi thought that he could do with a bit more happy thoughts in his life.

Then it was Naruto's turn.

"I have many likes and some dislikes," Naruto began copying the copy-nin, "I have a dream but I don't think you are worthy of hearing about it, and I also have an ambition, which is to become recognized by the whole of the continent...one way or another."

The three genin were eventually told about the _**real**_ genin exam which would be held the next day and were advised against having breakfast, two of the three genin would be disregarding that piece of advice. While the third would be force fed an apple in the morning before the test by Naruto.


	54. Chapter 54

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-four**_

"You are not going to do what I think you are planning on doing are you?" Mei asked Ryoku as he was about to file a mission request, handing it in as an inconspicuous common looking person, somehow his wife always managed to know when he was in disguise.

"Oh, come on, just this once let me do something normal for a change," Ryoku whined, having been caught trying to get someone to steal that one bucket they kept under lock and key at the hidden village museum.

"I am not authorizing a team to try and steal _that_ bucket," Mei said, "And no amount of pleading and whinning will get you to get me to authorize such a mission."

"Oh fine," Ryoku said dropping his illusion, the one keeping people wondering why the Mizukage was speaking to him the way she was.

"Now are you going to tell me why you're really here or am I going to have to drag it out of you, Daimyo or not," Mei said as she led her husband to her office, it was still rather early in the morning.

Once they were within the confines of her office he sat down on the couch found inside.

"Well?" she said rather impatiently.

"I was wondering if you'd like to visit young Naruto," Ryoku said, it actually caught her off guard.

"Could you repeat that?" she asked of him.

"Do you want to see the youngest member of our extensive family?" he asked again, "Plus, we'd be able to see Shiro in person again."

"I'd like to," she began, "But what about the village? The country? Two leaders can't just go on some vacation just like that."

"I'll handle the village and the country," Ryoku said, "I've got four forms in case you've forgotten. I can take up the post of Mizukage for a few days. Everyone'll understand. So how about it?"

"Fine," she said, "I was needing a vacation anyway."

"*"

Naruto was up bright and early, he didn't bother leaving a note, his dirty dishes would do all the talking for him. He had been warned just the night before, along with Sasuke, that if they didn't eat before leaving they would greatly regret it, and when Shiro and Mikoto tell you something at exactly the same time, you have no other choice but to listen.

He then went over to Sasuke's room and woke him up with the smell of tomatoes, his comrade's and housemate's favorite food in the whole wide world. They both got ready and left the house heading for the training ground they were to meet their sensei in, even though both had been told that the dude was notorious for being late. There was talk in the village that the man would probably be late for his own funeral.

The duo then made their way to Sakura's place, both boys knew where it was for different reasons, Sasuke knew because he had been kidnapped by Sakura and Ino one time and had been hogtied in her room, while Naruto had been forced by Shiro to memorize where everyone in the village lived one time.

Naruto force fed her a big ass apple after she had repeatedly refused to eat anything for fear of displeasing an authority figure and also since Sasuke didn't want to help him convince her of the pros of eating. The Uchiha was too busy enjoying the tomatoes Naruto had given him. Selfish bastard.

When the trio finally reached the clearing, Sakura decided to get back some of her lost sleep, while Sasuke decided to actually meditate, while Naruto went off to train on his own, all the while hoping that his bloodlines didn't act up again. At least one of them had a thing for acting up randomly. They were a pain in the ass when they did, just like yesterday when his time related one made the world so slow so for him.

It was at 9am that their jounin sensei decided to arrive only to find the genin each eating some kind of red fruit, even though he had specifically advised them not to eat anything. It was quite different from what his other assigned teams had done. They had all jumped into the test with empty stomachs, it wasn't that he was unprepared for such an eventuality, it was just that he didn't think that the wastes of space had actually taken their career choices mildly seriously.

He told them what they needed to know, showed the the bells, gave them the signal, and they were off.

Or at least he thought all of them were off to plan their own demises, separately and not out in the open like the blonde before him was. Preaching about how he was going to kick the jounin's ass from the training ground to the next training ground. It was a bit insulting the way Naruto was treating the jounin.

"...then I'm giong to let the fish people piss of your unmasked face..." Naruto just kept going on and on as his other two genin teammates watched as he set himself up to be assraped by the jounin, which was precisely what happened. What no one had been expecting was the Naruto to go up in smoke. Proving that it had been a clone. From there the training ground turned into hell.

Sasuke was both glad and disappointed in himself that he hadn't ever really taken his housemate seriously, and thought of him as a potential guage for his growth before. While Sakura was thinking that perhaps she needed to take her career path a bit more seriously if her supposedly deadlast of a teammate was able to cause a legendary jounin to use his trumpcard for a simple genin graduation exam.

By the time that the timer, which had surprisingly survived the war, the training field ended up looking like a war zone, had gone off the training field was unrecognizeable. The jounin was tied to all three training logs, two genin had a bell each, and Naruto was holding onto a really creepy looking contraption while a clone read over a complicated looking operation manual.

"Do we pass...or do you want to find out what this piece of machinery can really do?" Naruto asked the jounin, a mischievous and unfriendly glint shinning in his eyes, multiplied by ten, which was just how many clones it took to read the manual.

"You pass...just...just...get away from me..." the man said almost pleadingly, the things that Naruto had put him through were sure to haunt him for days and nights to come, for a split second he thought that the kyuubi had not been sealed and had only been given a more solid body, but he pushed that thought aside as he believed that perhaps Uzumaki Naruto was even more evil than any hundred foot tall bijuu could ever hope to be. Especially when his career was on the line.

It was a good thing that reporting to the Hokage about whose team passed or not was not until the next day, since it took Kakashi the rest of the day to untie himself from the three logs, and the time it took him to be later than usual to get out of the training field unscathed. His precious copy of the last Icha Icha volume wasn't so lucky.

It had been burnt to a crisp right before his very eyes just as he was about to cross the perimeter of the training ground. Just before it happened every good memory he had with the issue flashed right before his very eyes. He ended up being an extra hour later than usual just to give the book a proper burial. He just hoped that the author, his idol in all things perverted, didn't find out about the incident.

"Hatake Kakashi reporting in..." he said as he entered the conference room used by the Hokage to accommodate all the jounin that had been assigned genin teams to pass or fail.

Kakashi was a walking corpse, and looked like he had fought in a great shinobi war all on his own and barely managed to live to tell that tale. Even parts of his ever present mask had been singed in some parts, and there were hints of blood on some parts of him, as well as a bandage around his neck signifying that he had been injured there recently.

"You're an hour later than usual," the Hokage said, "What's your excuse this time?"

"I passed my team," the jounin replied, "That's my excuse, cause explaining why I look like this," he motioned to his state of being, "Would be more unbelieveable than the fact that I, Hatake Kakashi, finally passed a genin team. That a mere genin managed to best me in battle, making training ground seven look like a veritable war zone. That one genin managed to make the Kyuubi look like a pathetic little kit. That a fresh from the academy genin managed to force me to hold a funeral for one of my most prized possessions...do any of you know how pathetic I feel right now? Do you!"

"That's enough Kakashi," the Hokage chided, "Now did you or did you not pass your team?"

"I already told you I passed them, the blonde one practically forced me to...now if you don't need anything more from me, I'll be heading home...I need a bath, a change of clothes, and a night with my hand and the remainder of my adults only book collection. Good day."

The jounin then proceeded to leave the room, all the while not minding anyone else. He had things to do, and he wasn't going to stop the potential court martial to stand in his way.

When Kakashi had finally left the other jounins and the Hokage took a moment to digest all of what had happened, before the jounins began to question their leader about what Kakashi had been on about. What had been so bad that such an acclaimed war veteran would say such insubordinate thing in the presence of the village leader, it was bad enough that he was late for most everything, but to do as he just did. What could have caused the man to have snapped like that.

"I'm afraid he must have just pissed off the wrong blonde this time," the Hokage said, "Naruto is not the kind of individual you want to piss off. I'm also guessing that Kakashi didn't read Naruto's public file which contains the warning about tardiness and taking being a shinobi seriously."

"What do you mean Hokage-sama?" Mitarashi Anko asked.

"Well...let me put it this way," the Hokage said, "When you tell Naruto to do something, you had better be prepared for the consequences of your words. I believe Kakashi must have told his genin to come at him with the intent to kill...Naruto must have believed that the jounin was taking them seriously..."

"What can one genin actually do, Hokage-sama?" Anko asked, voices all the other jounin's questions.

"A lot apparently," the Hokage said, "When said genin is a close friend to Hyuuga Haru, Sakujo Seigen, and Saganiki Tenma, there is a lot that said genin can do."

"That last one sounds vaguely familiar," Morino Ibiki said, "I've heard it somewhere before."

"Saganiki Tenma is the clan head of a nomadic clan in Kaze no Kuni that deals with seals and necromancy," the Hokage informed the gathered jounin, "Now imagine what such a person could have passed on to a close friend of his."

"That's a frightening thought Hokage-sama, how can one genin have such power?" one jounin asked, truly frightened at the thought of what the kyuubi-former jinchuuriki could do if angered by the villagers.

"Luckily for you, you only know a fraction of what I know," the Hokage said, liking the feeling of putting some fear into his forces, a little bit too much, "But that's about it, now back to the reporting, any more teams?"

"*"

"Guess who decided to come for a visit," Shiro said as he let his young great grandnephew into their house.

"Takeshi-jiji?" Naruto guessed, Sasuke didn't really care all that much.

"Nope, better," Shiro said, it was a joke of course, sort of...really.

"Uh...I give up," Naruto said, "Who?"

"You're no fun, gaki," Shiro said and led the two boys into the sitting room where Naruto found himself enveloped in a hug by none other than the Mizukage herself.

"N-nice to see...you... too baa-chan," Naruto rasped out as she continued to squeeze the life out of him, the Shinigami briefly appearing every now and then making faces at him but not moving towards him with the intent of taking his soul.

When she finally let him go, she went ahead and hugged Sasuke as well, it took the combined efforts of Mikoto and Naruto to pry her off of him as he was starting to turn blue.

"Sorry about that," she said when she let go.

"Hn," he said, then went to the kitchen after giving his mother a hug of course.

"She did that to me before too," Mikoto told her son before he left the room to look for some tomatoes.

"We'll be staying for the remainder of the week," Ryoku informed Shiro, "Or at least three-fourth of myself shall be, while your mother in full stays. We decided to go on a vacation."

"What about my brother?" Shiro asked, "Will he be coming?"

"Unfortunately I'm having him take care of some...Ne infestations we've discovered along the border, pesky little things," Ryoku said distastefully, "I'd go after them myself, but your mother keeps reminding me about the power structure of the country and other such trivialities."

"Only you would think that due process and probably cause were trivialities," Shiro commented.


	55. Chapter 55

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-five**_

For the duration of the week Team seven had been busily performing a relentless number of D-rank missions ranging from weeding gardens to walking dogs, and of course there was the dreaded Tora mission. Dreaded for others, but easy pickings for Team seven, since the cat had becomnig rather terrified of Naruto after its first bout with him. The blonde really had a way with things that he found annoying.

The cat always seemed to run up to Sakura whenever it caught wind of their team being the one assigned to its capture. It was just as scared of Sasuke as it was of Naruto for some reason that the blue shirt wearing boy didn't share for some reason.

It didn't see Kakashi as a threat, but it preferred the soft females of the human species to anything else. It really was more scared of Naruto than of Sasuke, but the blonde didn't need to know that. Beating the record for the cat was something that the team liked to brag about, it didn't beat the record for a similar mission in Kiri, since Ryoku could make time stop when he wanted it to, but that shouldn't have counted.

But it did.

The next fastest record, which also shouldn't be counted, but was in some circles, was when Uzumaki Kushina simply picked up a cat that had been sitting beside her after the mission had been handed over to her genin team. The cat happened to be the nearly immortal Tora.

"That's it!" Kakashi suddenly burst out, he had finally had it. He had tried everything to get the blonde to crack under pressure, or even the Uchiha to show anything other than indifference, but nothing he had tried, not even the hellish missions, had worked. He was at his wits end.

"What's it Kakashi-kun," the Hokage inquired, they were at the mission assignment office part of the Hokage Tower.

"I request a C-rank mission," Kakashi stated, "My team is more than qualified for it."

"Indeed they are," the Hokage agreed, "In less than a week your team has managed to accumulate the required number of missions for a C-rank."

"Thank kami," Kakashi said, and the Hokage had the client for the mission sent in.

"*"

Things were looking quite well for Naruto and company, Mei and Ryoku decided to head for home earlier since the root cause of their vacation was going out on his first C-rank mission, it didn't beat the S-ranks he had done for the village, but it was a start. They wished him luck and gave him somethings to prove his station to any citizen of Mizu if he came across any of them. No one really noticed Ryoku's knowing smirk cross his lips when he handed over a ring for Naruto to wear.

Ryoku warned Naruto against calling on the aid of any of the summons during such a mission, he didn't need to draw too much attention to himself. But he was advised to bring his sword with him, it was a simple katana that had some seals engraved on it. All of it was replaceable, since Shiro had simply had his father conjure the thing for their training convenience.

The first part of the mission was rather boring, even the part where the Demon Brothers decided to show up and bring in some excitement, they were eventually tied to a tree where they were left for dead or so they thought, until Naruto's clones came around the bend to free them of their own chains, and let them get back to getting back to their intelligence gathering mission. Not all Kiri-nin knew what Naruto looked like, luckily the Demon Brothers knew.

The next nuke-nin to add to their encounter list was none other than Momochi Zabuza, he was like Kisame in that he was out on an S-rank mission. He was really happy when he found out hat Naruto was on the mission to protect the bridge builder. He was so happy that he ended up having a mizu bushin keep Kakashi away from the sword play, while the other two genin watched their deadlast teammate duke it out wth a grin on his face with the Demon of the Mist.

The two other genin watched in amazement as their supposedly weakest teammate took on an S-ranked nin, Sakura was more fearful, while Sasuke was more jealous than anything else. He needed to get stronger if he was to exact revenge against the one responsible for the massacre of his clan, whether or not his mother wanted him to walk the path of avenger or not.

The fight ended when Zabuza was forced into an unconscious state by his ever present and loyal apprentice who thought that the fight had gone on long enough. The masked nin then took Zabuza away from the fight which caused the bubble of water holding Kakashi prisoner to burst, after which he promptly fell down unconscious due to chakra exhaustion from keeping himself alive within the bubble of water.

#

Kakashi believing that Zabuza was a bad guy informed his team that, based on the information they had given him about the fight and aftermath, they had at least a week before the rather buff nuke-nin sought his revenge, as well as cashed in on his paycheck or whatever else Kakashi may have called attacking Tazuna was in his druggy state.

After a day he was well enough to oversee his team's training, and had them do the tree climbing exercise, which ended up with him having only to watch Sakura keep going at it as she was told that it would help increase her reserves. The two boys didn't need to perform the exercise as they already knew it, thanks to Shiro mostly in Sasuke's case, and Kirigakure no Sato in Naruto's case.

The two boys were told that while not guarding Tazuna they could go train on their own. Sasuke opted to master his katon ninjutsu learning from scrolls that Shiro had given to him to help him get stronger, though hoping that the avenger streak would get less and less as missions were accomplished. Naruto on the other hand opted to just go with Tazuna and guard him while he worked, he didn't want to be relatively alone when something weird happened with regards to his bloodlines. His training could be done by his clones, or by his other selves, since they were kind of like Kage Bushin anyway.

He had been gifted with a few scrolls from Ryoku himself, these ones detailing attacks of the kinjutsu kind, they were labeled as such due to their chakra cost. No control necessary, but the more control the better the jutsu produced. Naruto had chakra in spades and his control wasn't half bad, though it could still use some work. His magic was good enough as well, what with having only to think of what he was doing as a prank, everything was set.

He helped out on the bridge and managed to train while doing so, training himself physically that is. Carrying large beams and the like did help build up his already amazing stamina, as well as put a bit more muscle on him. He also learned much about construction since he had his clones help him with the endeavor.

Kakashi did remember proper protocol when it came to missions and simply decided that perhaps it was time to inform the Hokage of the recent developments. He received an instantaneous reply from the Hokage and was amazed at the swiftness of it. The Hokage informed him that two jounin were heading his way to assist in the mission, and would be bringing a new mission contract with them.

The Hokage was rather disappointed with Kakashi for not informing him of the extra mission details that they had encountered, and also due to him having waited after they had been ambushed not once, but twice. Kiri would be receiving the new intel on their nuke-nin, not that the Mizukage would actually be sending anyone. Hiruzen knew that little tid bit, but protocol and proper proceedure needed to be followed in case anyone was keeping tabs on his dealings.

It on the fifth day of the week that the reinforcements had finally arrived, apparently they had come across several obstacles along the way. Gato had thought of the possibility that reinforcements would be sent for the mission and thus laid traps and ambushes, along with hiring some additional nuke-nin, this time from Kumo instead of Kiri. He almost hired the Akatsuki but thought that it would be better if he didn't try and backstab such a powerful group of people.

Seigen and Haru were very happy clan heads, they managed to cash in on some bounties that had been laying in wait for them to pass by. Between the incredible luck manipulating abilities that Seigen possessed and the Byakugan, those laying in wait didn't stand a chance. Not one of them had expected to have to deal with such jounin. They were cheap hired hands that had defected from their village due to not being content with the way things worked, or how they were not getting stronger. It is said that nuke-nin were actually stronger than those that stayed loyal to their villages, it was most likely due to having to actually adapt to survive.

It was Inari, the grandson of Tazuna that was the first to meet with the two reinforcements.

"I hope we're not terribly lost," Seigen said as he surveyed the fog bank that simply rolled around them like a really thick blanket. It had come out of nowhere.

"Who're you?" the voice of a child was heard through the fog, and Haru did the Kaiten to push the blanket away to reveal the child known as Inari, "Are you ninja too?"

"Yeah," Seigen said, "We're ninja, from Konoha too. We're here as the reinforcements that Hokage-sama sent to back up Team seven, you wouldn't happen to know where they are would you?"

"They're either protecting my granpa at the bridge or at home," the kid said, "Why do you care, and why did you come, you're all gonna just die anyway."

"Kid," Seigen said, "I've fought in many battles and beaten numerous opponents. I'm a jounin for a reason."

"So?" the kid said.

"While it may be possible for us to perish during this mission," Haru said, "It would be doing not only our job, but would be while we were protecting people."

"Yeah, well, you're still going to die," the kid said, "So you might as well just go back home."

"Kid, what's your problem with us just wanting to help make things better?" Seigen asked.

"My dad was the strongest man here, and he died when he fought Gato," the kid said, "He's proof that you'll just die if you fight. It's all pointless, he was a fool for fighting."

"He wasn't a fool kid," Seigen said, "He died a hero, fighting for the freedom of the people he loved."

"Well, I think he was a fool," the kid argued, he didn't know why he was arguing with the two strangers though.

"Kid, I know you're hurting due to your loss," Seigen said, "But that's no reason to give up. Your dad must have accomplished something. He might have been the reason why your gramps wants this bridge of his built."

"I don't care, my dad was a fool, and so is my granpa, in the end we're all just gonna die," the kid said, tears were about to spill forth by this time.

"Gaki," Haru decided to speak up, "Quit your moping and shut up for a moment. I don't give a rat's ass if you think we're going to die, cause we're not. I don't give a flying fuck about what you think is going to happen. Your dad was a hero, he tried to save Nami in his own way, your gramps is a living hero who is trying to save this country in his own way. You could be a hero yourself if you actually decided to stop moping about and simply choose to do something. Now, I'm going to promise you that when we're done, Gato will be the least of anyone's worries."

"Yeah right," the kid said, "Like that'll ever happen. He's got a lot of money and power, and people who work for him. There's just you two and team seven. What can you do?"

"A lot," Seigen said, "Like one of us said, we're jounin. What's an army compared to us?"

"He wouldn't know," Haru stated, while whacking Seigen on the back of the head, then spoke to the kid once more, "We can do a lot of things. There's three jounin on this mission now, two genin, and a tokubetsu genin that has been on S-rank missions before, S-ranks are really hard missions just so you know. Your gramps is in good hands, and if that wasn't enough there's a Nami no Kuni royal fighting Gato as well."

"Impossible," the kid said, "Gramps said Gato killed them all."

"Well, there just so happens to be at least one still alive and kicking," Haru said, "So, how about it, can there be heroes in the world if one of your own royalty decides to fight?"

"No," the kid said firmly, regressing to his beliefs.

"I give up," Seigen said, "There's no convincing this kid. Let's just regroup with Team seven and just prove to the kid that heroes still exist, that his dad and gramps aren't fools, and that Gato is an idiot for deciding to take over a country so near to Mizu no Kuni."

"Can you please not refer to that country when we're supposed to be Konoha-nin," Haru said, slightly exasperated, "Kid take up to your gramps or to Kakashi."

"*"

Kakashi didn't know how to handle the shock of having to work with two clan heads that apparently weren't all that fond of him, but worked almost too well with Naruto, and good enough with the two other genin. Sasuke was used to their presence, while Sakura decided that clan heads were even bigger authority figures as compared to a simple jounin.

Haru was not impressed with Sakura's progress, thus made her learn how to and perform and train in using the water walking exercise. She got it down immediately after being told what to do, but after a few minutes dropped through the water like a rock, while both Sasuke and Naruto watched from the bridge.

Seigen's presence made building the bridge even easier, which gave Naruto more time to himself to train in one of his techniques.

It was a kinjutsu of Kiri, why he was allowed to learn it was obvious what with his familial connections there. It was Suiton: Kekon Tsunami no Jutsu, which was a water jutsu that used the user's chakra to create water which would then mix in with some blood and turn into a tidal wave of red or pink tinged water. While a tidal wave was something that high level ninja were able to create with even simple techniques, what made this one different was that the tidal wave of water and blood was as solid as a rock but kept the fuidity of water, it was both a water wall and a sledgehammer rolled into one.

To most it would be considered a suicide technique, since the amount of blood needed to keep it active was like slitting one's wrists. Naruto could use it due to his advanced healing abilities making it just another technique, one that could leave him a little bit drained, but not dead.

Training with the technique left him more than simply winded, he actually ended up sleeping in the forest near Tazuna's house before Zabuza launched his attack. The attack was merely to keep up appearances, since Zabuza had a mission to do, part of it was ridding the lands near Mizu of bastards like Gato.

When the morning of the attack arrived, Kakashi, Seigen, and Haru were waiting patiently on the bridge, while two of the three genin were guarding Tazuna at one end of the bridge. All the workers had been told to take the day off to avoid anything bad happening to them, though what that bad thing was was not elaborated. Naruto was not among the people on the bridge.

While the jounin and two genin waited for Zabuza to make his move, Naruto was busy moving in the forest, not stirring awake, but moving around and dodging attacks. It seemed that Gato had found out about his hired help losing their heads, and chose to get better help. Hidden Village help, while more expensive, were more reliable, and it was with that decision that Naruto found himself facing off against Kumo-nin.

There was just something about Kumo-nin that Naruto didn't like, and it wasn't the fact that they were trying to kill him. It was more the fact that they were Kumo-nin. He didn't really understand why he just couldn't seem to stand them, the trying to kill him might have made the feeling worse, but it was already there to begin with.

"Stop moving gaki!" one of the Kumo-nin said before firing off another lightning dragon, while one of his two teammates threw shuriken and kunai charged with electricity, and had some explosive notes on them for added kick.

"No way!" Naruto shouted, he couldn't access his bloodlines for some reason, which meant that they were acting up again, all he had were the techniques he had at his disposal, which were rather few really.

He'd already tried using kage bushin for distraction and added firepower, but they fell at the hands of one of the Kumo-nin's electriciy nets. The clones couldn't handle all the power flowing through them.

He could have simply taken them out from the very beginning if he transformed into his other selves, but chose not to since he wanted his core to remain unique and separate from those two other personas, just as how his ancestor did.

He didn't dare use his newest technique since he knew that if he was being attacked, then his comrades at the bridge were being attacked as well, or would be soon and they would need all the help they could get, what with the Kumo-nin suddenly joining the sitatuation.

He dodged another dragon and several balls of lightning, and a few non-raiton jutsu, as well as a few dozen exploding clones, and weapons. While he wasn't getting physically tired from all the dodging and running, he was getting tired of the fact that he couldn't seen to be able to think of anything that could work, he couldn't even draw on his bijuu chakra for some reason.

"What's your problem with me? You could have just gone to the bridge or Tazuna's place!" Naruto shouted as he barely dodged a flying kick to his head, it was taijutsu now instead of ninjutsu, his attackers deciding that they were just wasting chakra on the kid, "You could have gotten some hostages from the house you know!"

"Don't you think we don't know that!" one of his attackers shouted back, delivering a punch that splintered the tree that it had hit instead of Naruto's gut like it was intended for, "We were assigned to kill you, why I have no idea, so suck it up and die already!"

"No effing way!" Naruto replied, he weaved his way away from his three attackers, it was getting pretty annoying, and perhaps now was not the time to not rely on the things he did have but did not really want to use, "I've got dreams, ambitions, and people to protect, so there's no way I'm just going to let you three numbskulls kill me."

"You say that now," one of the attackers said, "But standing still isn't going to do anything."

Naruto had stopped moving a few feet away and adopted a stance that more senior ninja would have recognized or at least thought over attacking someone daring to enter that rather bored looking stance. Naruto had just entered the opening stance of the Ryokuken.

"What the hell is that stance," one of the kumo-nin couldn't help but ask out loud, he actually felt insulted when he should have felt rather honored, "Are you mocking us?"

"Wastes of space," Naruto stated darkly, his eyes bore into their showing cold indifference, "You are keeping me from my precious people."

"Kid, you can see them again in your next life," the one that felt really insulted said and ran in Naruto's direction fist cocked back in preparation for taking Naruto's head clean off of his shoulders, he could have held a kunain in his hand and it wouldn't have helped him.

His two comrades watched as Naruto simply grew faster, a lot faster than any genin, according to their intelligence, could or should even be. The fluidity of Naruto's movements were also surprising, even though he had dodged all of their previous attacks, he didn't move as he did now. It really looked like he had not been taking them seriously before, and now was actually looking down on them, or ignoring them. Which was not the case as he was focused on them, watching everything about them. He needed to be focused and concentrated on his present task if he wanted to come out alive.

Shiro had told him that truly using the Ryokuken, by anyone that wasn't Ryoku himself, needed to be fully aware of almost everything going on around him or her. Being more than simply mindful of one's surroundings while at the same time looking like everything around him were not in any way important was a very difficult task, especially during a life or death situation.

His body flowed like water around his opponent's attacks, all of them, even some of the chakra augmented attacks that sent occasional cracks in the very air to form or be heard. There was nothing that the Kumo-nin could do but attack and get tired. Naruto was using up a lot of chakra, augmenting his body in all the places that needed it. This was probably the one time or situation that his chakra control was perfect.

He didn't attack yet, simply tired his enemy out as fast as his enemy attacked, he needed to get to Tazuna's house to make sure that the bridge builder's family was alright, then he would go to the bridge to help out. From his two other bodies he knew that Zabuza, and his apprentice and son Haku, had switched sides and were fighting alongside the Konoha-nin against a platoon of Kumo-nin, Kumo really wanted what Gato offered and the additional cash that the heads of Zabuza and Kakashi would grant Kumo were great bonuses. It wasn't that they were greedy or that they didn't care about life, it was just that a job was a job, and ridding other villages of resources was normal.

Naruto decided that his comrades and his other selves would need his help, they were his team and selves, of course they needed his help. There was also Tsunami and that kid Inari that were probably in a lot of danger at the moment. He needed to act, and he needed to act now.

"I'm leaving," Naruto stated, "I've got people to protect, and insects just aren't worth my time right now."

That statement really sent the kumo-nins over the edge in anger, not only were they being looked down on by a genin, but they were also being ignored and insulted. He should have been an easy kill, but everything he did was simply frustrating.

So they decided to take off the kids gloves, and take the kid seriously for a change.

It didn't really work, since Naruto just created some clones of himself who also used the same style, and this time attacked. If his dodging was like water, his attacks felt like the earthquakes on their bones and fire on everything else.

To Naruto his bloodlines seemed to be inaccessible, but in truth they were actually awakening, really awakening, they were unsealing themselves, a deadly combination of things was going on within him. The Ryokuken was a catalyst for the real unlocking of his bloodlines, all of them. The bandages that formed on Seigen were a mere manifestation of the seal that kept the bloodlines away, or their sealed state. It was the only form with the physical manifestation.

The clones ended the fight against three chunin rather quickly, taking them out rather painfully, only one of them would live to report back to Kumo about a frightening genin that used a bizzare style of fighting. The Raikage would recognize the brutal efficiency of the taijutsu style and would go so far as to label Naruto as an A-class threat in his village's Bingo Book.

Naruto rushed to the house only to find that Tazuna's family was nowhere to be found, he also found tracks in the dirt and followed them, knowing that they would lead him to the people he was looking for and needed to now rescue.

He followed the tracks to a hidden alcove near a ways away from the bridge, there he snuck around looking for Tsunami and her kid, and with the use of clones eventually found the two of them, they were being talked down on by Gato himself. There were guards around the area where Gato was. Naruto heard snippets about how Gato was telling Tsunami that he was going to kill her son in front of her, then use her after he had disposed of Tazuna. Naruto didn't like the sound of that, and his ancestor's saving people thing trait kicked in.

He jumped out of where he had been hiding, and surprised a number of guards, hired mercenaries, with his clones taking some of them out of the picture upon their revealing themselves.

"Well, well, well," Gato said, "If it isn't the blonde genin that gave Zabuza so much trouble, your time is over genin. Men kill him."

He was more overconfident than Naruto, as well as had more of that you are beneath me aura than Haru since Haru actually did care about others occasionally.

"I don't think so," Naruto said, he didn't really think about what he was doing, neither did his clones. They all just went wild. Dishing out physical punishment to any of the men that decided to cross their path. The clones cleared the way for Naruto to reach the hostages and Gato who was too slow to issue a threat on their lives.

"He-Hey! You can't be some ordinary genin," Gato said, "Listen, you want money? Power? Fame? Anything, I'll give you anything, just let me live."

The man began pleading as soon as Naruto stood before him since his look of indifference leveled up to You-Are-Not-Worth-Keeping-Alive. It was a sight to behold since one of Naruto's eyes changed from bright blue to half crimson and half emerald, a rather different combination and look. To Gato it was like looking into three separate eyes at once.

One was the indifferent blue, another an angry red, and the third...well...Ryoku was really scary when one thought about what exactly he was capable off.

If the eyes are the windows of the soul, well, Naruto was a real monster, or could be anyway.

"What I want you cannot give," Naruto stated, "What you have, I will take."

"Guards! Men! Anyone!" Gato shouted, calling for immediate aid, but received none, since as he looked around everything was still. Time no longer flowed around the two of them. He didn't know what was happening, but one moment he was issuing orders, and the next he was there with Naruto standing over him with a look that promised a personal session with the Shinigami, a deity that was quickly growing visible behind Naruto.

"_**...So it seems that you have unlocked your heritage...or part of it at the very least,**_" the Shinigami spoke to Naruto as he slipped past the blonde and stood behind the trembling Gato, money could buy a lot of things, but the Shinigami cared not for such things.

"I suppose I'll just have to ask Shiro-jiji about it..he never said anything my bloodlines going haywire," Naruto said, "And Ryoku-jiji said that the bandages that Seigen wore were the manifestation of their sealed state, much like the patches and bandages of my other relatives."

"_**True, true,**_" the Shinigami said, "_**Good luck, you shall be force to be reckoned with in the future gaki. But it shall be a long road ahead, these newly released powers will be a tad bit more difficult to control as your relatives can attest to**_."

"Since Seigen is the only one with the manifestation of the restraints, how or what do I do with this core form?" Naruto askd.

"_**You could follow family tradition and wear an eye patch,**_" the deity said.

"I guess," Naruto said, then turned back his attention to the squealing form of Gato, "You've drained this country dry, and even maimed the hope of the people, you've sent countless people to poverty and have been the major cause of their suffering. I have a proposition for you."

"What is it? I'll do anything?" Gato pleaded, getting down on his hands and knees.

"Release all your assets to me," Naruto said, "Sign them over to my control and ownership, I'll see to it that your crimes against humanity are undone, if you do this **I** will not kill you."

"Deal!" the short man said and scribbled on a piece of paper the agreement affixing his signature even, using his own blood to seal the agreement too, "Done!"

Naruto read through the document and once he found it satisfactory, he nodded to the short man.

"Everything looks to be in order," Naruto said, "So I won't kill you."

"_**But he didn't say anything about me, now did he?**_" the Shinigami said as he swooped down on Gato and tore his soul from his mortal shell and the torture began, "_**Your soul is not worthy of my stomach...no you shall suffer for all of eternity!**_"

Then time flowed forward again, Tsunami and Inari watching as Gato's body simply lay on the ground, literally dead to the world. Some of the mercenaries that were still alive or conscious were rooted to where they stood as a wave of killing intent spread out from the epicenter that was Naruto.

"Gato is dead," Naruto stated firmly, "Everything he owned in life, is now mine to do with as I please. Now, either you, who remain amongst the living, serve me...or I simply feed the Shinigami with your souls. Now chose."

All the remaining mercenaries around the docks that also had a warehouse nearby got down on their hands and knees, put their foreheads to the ground and stayed that way. There was just something else about Naruto that made them feel that that much respect was deserved, and they should feel honored to be in his presence. He then had his clones free the two supposed hostages from their bonds.

"Well, that solves the Gato problem," Naruto told the two he had gone after to protect, "Looks like all I need to do now is get you two back home safe and sound, then get to the bridge and help out with the nuke-nin and or kumo-nin infestation."

"*"

When some relatively new chakra signatures, of the level above civilian or mercenary, appeared near the bridge, Zabuza was quick to switch sides. Haku too joined the ranks of the jounin, and prepared for the clash that was to come. Kakashi didn't know why he was allowing the two Mizu citizens to fight alongside him, but he chose not to comment as the two clan heads that were on his side acknowledged the nuke-nin, as if they knew something he didn't know.

The new arrivals revealed themselves to be Kumo-nin, several of them in fact, all of them Jounin in rank, and experience.

"It looks like Kumo will be short a few shinobi after this encounter," Kakashi noted, as he had a feeling that Konoha would not be losing this bout.

"I agree," Zabuza said, "Kiri has never lost a bout against Kumo, and even as a nuke-nin, I shall not fail this day."

"Representatives of Konoha and Kiri," a blonde haired Kunoichi said, "We were hired to take you out as well as that bridge builder. Don't take it personally, but we'll be leaving later with your heads as proof of our completion of our mission."

"You do know that Gato's not going to honor his end of the deal, don't you," Zabuza said, "I mean, he sent you guys here to kill me too, right."

"We're from a hidden village, not some runaway like you," the kunoichi said, "He'll pay if he knows what's good for him. But even without the immediate payment, taking you out will be a welcome experience."

"Then prepare for battle," Zabuza said as he got into an opening stance.

"I will not need to use my eyes to beat you into the ground," Haru stated, which caused the Kumo-nin to focus on him, and see the Hyuuga that calmly stood before them for the first time.

"Ooh, a Hyuuga, guess we'll be getting a bonus once we're through with them," a kumo-nin said, "If we couldn't have a baby factory, might as well get some eyes, genetic material and all that."

"You will be the first to die by my hands," Haru said and got into the opening stance of Ryokuken instead of Jyuken.

"Luck ain't on your side kitty cat," Seigen said as he unwrapped as he too got into a stance, he looked as if he was about to sprint in some hundred meter dash competition, his bloodline abilities were activating.

"Looks like my eye will get to be used a whole lot more than I expected, I might even learn something new," Kakashi said, adding his own bit of combat banter.

"Enough talking," the kunoichi said, apparently she was the captain of the bunch, "We start fighting now.."

With that the two sides clashed, and indeed Kumo did not stand a chance against the combined might Kiri and Konoha. The kumo-nin weren't pushed back, they were slaughtered, not even allowed to use even one of their jutsu. After a good five minutes, Kumo lost quite a lot of their strength, and were left with only the kunoichi and three other jounin.

"I love a good fight," Zabuza said, "Kubikiri Honcho hasn't feasted in a good while."

All the chips, and scratches that the blade had suffered were gone, thanks to the rejuvenating properties of blood.

"Hey Haru, maybe you were a bit too hard on the guy," Seigen said, the guy in question was a mere puddle of blood on the ground, Haru had been merciless in his strikes, while Seigen took a little bit of pity on his enemies and simply phased through his opponents and left with some vital organs in each hand, he was like a ghost.

"I'm disappointed in myself, that could have gone a little faster," Kakashi commented on his own fighting skills, it was a high speed battle but he felt that he had neglected his own training, "Guess I'll have to up my training along with my genin's."

"So you're actually going to train them?" Seigen asked curiously.

"Well, just Sasuke and Sakura, there is no longer doubt in my mind that Naruto needs and additional help from me," Kakashi said.

"Understandable," Seigen said, then they all faced the remaining kumo-nin who were getting rather infuriated at being ignored for so long.

"Are you done acting like peacocks?" the kunoichi huffed in annoyance.

"We believe so," Kakashi replied.

"Very well," she said, "It looks like I've lost a number of good friends this day, and while I could hold a grudge, I won't since we were just doing our jobs. But that doesn't mean that this battle is over.."

"Why is that kitty cat?" Seigen asked somewhat teasingly.

"Cause there's a reason why I was sent," she replied, "Gato promised a lot of cash, we're going to make sure that we collect what is owed, and make sure that all know the might of Kumo for it. Say your prayers boys, it's time to die.."

A fierce chakra then exploded around her forming a shell of chakra cloak, one which Haru and Seigen knew all to well. Kakashi eyes nearly bugged out at the revelation, and Zabuza began to wish that his taichou was with them at the moment. Haku didn't know what to think.

"Tazuna! You better pay for an S-rank mission when we're done here!" Kakashi shouted back as he prepared for what he believed to be the fight of his life.

"_I really wish Yondaime-sama would pop up right about now..._" Zabuza whispered to himself, Haku hearing him.

He didn't know it but his apprentice had the same thoughts, having heard tales about the rather eccentric kage, now daimyo. There was nothing more insane that a bunch of summon bosses dogpilling on a kage.

'_Shit!_' Naruto collectively swore, the core was needed at the bridge pronto.

The cloak then quickly became even thicker and darker, and soon, what stood before the joint forces of Kiri and Konoha was none other than a miniture version of the Nibi no Nekomata, they were faced with a jinchuuriki with control over its bijuu or just the chakra part of it.

"Play time's over," the kumo jounin that were not powers of human sacrifice said as they backed up to watch the fireworks.

"You're right," a voice out of nowhere echoed around the bridge and the dense mist that surrounded it that remained, "Play time is indeed over. Suiton: Kekon Tsunami no Jutsu!"

To say the name of a jutsu was just for focusing purposes, it didn't make the jutsu stronger by itself. It just made the user more aware of just what he or she was supposed to be doing, it was the intent that mattered as well as the hours of honing the skill and mastering it that did.

The fog was immediately blown away just before a toweing tidal wave of red water rushed up to the bridge and slammed into the concrete obliterating the three jounin and forcing the jinchuuriki to her knees, the poisonous cloak she wore being forced down as well, those that were not supposed to get hurt were somehow missed by the wave, and the bridge proved itself to be a work of a real master at the craft of architecture, design, and craftmanship. The materials weren't bad either.

When the waters finally receeded back into the body of water from whence they came, all that was left on the bridge were the building materials and the still living people, including the Nibi jinchuuriki. Everything else, like the blood and bodies, were washed away.

"Sorry I'm late guys, but I kind of got held up by Gato and his bunch of merry men," Naruto said running a hand through his messy hair, "Hehe, hope I wasn't too late."

"You were right on time," Haru said, "Though I did want to cut loose a little bit, but I guess beggers can't be choosers."

"What he said," Seigen said pointing at Haru with his thumb.

"Hehe," Naruto laughed somewhat, "Now what?"

The group of winners heard some groaning from the thought to be downed cat, the cloak had peeled off once the wave disipated, and she was soaked to the bone with water, she was like a literal drowned cat to the men, and girl.

"W-what...h-hit me?" she mumbled as pain wracked her body, sending her to the ground after rising a little bit, she was thankful to her status as a jinchuuriki as it had saved her life, but then she realized that she was now at the mercy of two of her village's greatest enemies.

"A tidal wave," was Naruto's simple reply.

"T-that w-was y-you?" she asked from her downed position on the ground, as the men simply stared, a tad bit incredulous at the situation, she wasn't panicking and was acting like what had happened was a regular occurrence.

"Yep," Naruto said proudly, "Though I've got to say, you're pretty tough kitty cat."

"..." she didn't say anything, but she did wonder why Naruto called her that as well as how his bandaged comrade knew that she was the Nibi's container.

"You know, by laying there you look very inviting to some of us," Zabuza said, "Be glad that I'm happily married, even though I don't get to see my wife as often as I'd like to, pretty hard when one's in my boat."

"I wouldn't mind having a go myself," Kakashi said, "No one would really mind, since you lost and all that."

"I'd mind," Seigen said, "It just isn't proper."

"When did you start believing in what was proper?" Haru mocked his other self, "Though I too would mind. Only an animal would think about performing such lewd acts out in public of all places. Wait until we've got her into a room before voiceing such thoughts."

"But I don't see how he'd be able to stand her," Naruto chimed in, "He's a dog person, while she's a cat person. Neither of them would enjoy it, and he might lose his spot on his contract with the dogs."

"True, true," Seigen said, rubbing his chin a bit in thought, "Looks like either the Uchiha or Zabuza's gender bender like son would be able to have the honor."

"Hn," Sasuke said crossing his arms in front of himself.

"WHAT!" Sakura shouted, unlady-like and unkunoichi-like.

"Can't you just kill her?" Tazuna asked, "She might just try to off me again."

"Nah, politically speaking, she's worth more alive than dead," Kakashi said, "Though using her to fulfil our _needs_ won't be a problem."

"Whatever," Zabuza said, "I'm out of here, come Haku, we'll cash in on the bounties for the dead heads you collected later. See ya around 'Ruto!"

The kiri-nin then jumped off of the bridge and ran on top of the water.

"Why'd you let them go!" Kakashi rounded on the two clan heads, not liking being in the dark for so long, "This is mine, and my team's mission, you're only the back up, so I would appreciate being let in on these additional parameters."

"Friend of the family," all three of Naruto's forms said at exactly the same time in the same indifferent voice and tone, "Nuff said."

"That still doesn't explain...you know what, nevermind, I'll talk to Hokage-sama about this," Kakashi said, he was losing it a bit.


	56. Chapter 56

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-six**_

The bridge was finished in record time thanks to the efforts of Seigen, Haru, and Naruto, as they used their ninja skills to help where they could. Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke, chose to either protect Tsunami and Inari from possible retaliatory actions by unknown fourth parties and training. That was what they did for the remainder of the mission, or at least that was what Kakashi thought Naruto was up to.

Naruto was also left in charge of their captive, known as Nii Yugito, since they were both jinchuuriki and Naruto seemed so capable, not that he could be considered one of those special nine people anymore thanks to that incident a few years back. But he was still more than capable for taking on the role of guard for the Nibi holder, and Kakashi didn't trust Sasuke not to botch up such an important mission.

Kakashi had failed to send word or an update of what had transpired so far on the mission, but Naruto did not forget, he sent word via Enma to the Hokage, complete with a rather detailed report written out by Haru, the most responsible of Naruto's forms, Tenma wasn't really the most due to his habit of raising things from the great beyond. But that was his thing, and he lived the life of a nomad.

There had been no real reply to the message by the Hokage, other than acknowledging the report, as well as sending word that the jinchuuriki would be welcomed into the village, and would be treated as a political hostage to get even more out of Kumo than during the Hyuuga Affair. They'd really be getting it, and the blood of Mizu really loved getting one over Kumo.

With the bridge finally built, Team Seven and the two Jounin said their goodbyes and left for Konoha, though Naruto had a new thing to report to Shiro-jiji, that being he had created yet another persona, he really was his great great grandfather's great great grandson. Even though he was Ryoku's only great great grandson.

With Kitty cat in tow, the group swiftly made their way back to Konoha, while Naruto's new persona, the Last of the Royal house of Nami, stayed behind to get the country back into shape.

The name he decided to take on was Namikaze Fuhen, he was the last of the Royal clan of Nami no Kuni, that was all anyone needed to know, Naruto didn't need to create a history of that particular persona, all anyone needed to know was that he was of the bloodline. A medical ninja or even a civilian doctor would be able to perform a test that would show that Fuhen was a Namikaze of the royal line. It was all in the blood after all.

He was, so far, the only one of Naruto's sub forms that looked very much like the core him, Fuhen had to since the Namikaze's were mostly blondes, or so Naruto liked to think, his dad was one after all. As a tribute to his mother, Fuhen had emerald green eyes, though it could also be a tribute to his heritage as Ryoku himself had such eyes, or an eye anyway. Fuhen looked to be around the age of twenty-five, was around five feet seven inches in height. He could pass for a clone of the Yondaime Hokage, minus the signature outfit and those baby blues. His garb consisted of what a jounin normally wore, but over that he wore a dark blue floor length trench cloak, complete with hood to hide his features. This form also had an eye patch to regulate and seal away his power, Fuhen also happened to be the magical expert of Naruto's selves. It was over his left eye, and it was black.

He appeared out of the mists that surrounded the bridge and just as the mists began to clear up too. On either side of him were clones, not that anyone knew that, ones that were in samurai garb. They walked like the military men that they were to appear to be. He decided to create his history as he appeared out of the mists.

The townspeople didn't know how to react when some guy that looked like the blonde that Tazuna decided to name the bridge after came walking out of the mists, followed by columns of samurai, these ones looking like genuine ones and not mere ronin.

"I take it I'm late for the festivities?" Fuhen asked the gathered townspeople rhetorically, he knew that he was or would be late in their eyes, after all he hadn't been there the entire time that his other selves had been present.

"Who are you sir?" Tazuna said, he was viewed as the leader of the town by the people, "I'll not have any trouble with anyone, and my friends won't have it either."

"I came from lands far to the East, I am Namikaze Fuhen," he introduced himself, "I ran away from home some ten years ago, and when I heard from my late informant of in the court of what had happened to my family I moved to return as fast as I could."

"Namikaze?" Tazuna asked, he knew that name from somewhere, "Are you related to the Yondaime Hokage?"

"Sort of," Fuhen said, "I'm also friends with an Uzumaki Naruto if you've heard of him."

"I know him," Tazuna said.

"That's the name of the Hero of Wave!" a random townsperson shouted along with the agreement of others.

"Well, its good to know a friend was able to help when I was too slow to," Fuhen said, he then faced his clones, "Spread out and survey the land, I want a report by the end of the week, it looks like the courts have been rather lax, had they not been my family would still be around, and surely doing something for the people of this land."

"Hai!" the clones said as one and ran in different directions.

"What do you think you are doing?" Tazuna asked, curiously and cautiously.

"I'm doing my duty since the rest of my family are no longer among the living to do theirs," Fuhen said as he began to gather his magic around him, then had it explode into the land, rejuvenating the land, healing it from the ill effects of Gato's unofficial reign, "Let's say that I'm the last, but at the same time I'm not exactly of the heir line."

"So...maybe we should have this conversation elsewhere," Tazuna said, "I've personally had a rought several months, how about it, Namikaze-san?"

"I'll agree to that," Fuhen said and followed the architect and construction worker back to his house, while the other townspeople went home or back to the bars to continue celebrating, and since they weren't the only ones to have suffered after Gato took over they still had to spread the word that the business-man-tyrant had been dealt with. The courts wouldn't like that one bit, but what could they do, other than bar this runaway from taking his rightful place on the throne, as the head of the country.

He knew that getting into the good graces of the people would take some time, but he had that, he was his ancestor's descendant after all, and time...time was at his beck and call, though not as much as Ryoku could command it.

As soon as he was seated he began weaving the tale of his life, and as each word was spoken it became history, weaving in any out of the tapestry of time, everything happened the way he said it did. It was a tale of teenage rebellion, a bit of Robin Hood, some saving-people-things mixed in, with a healthy dose of caring too much for other people. Memories of his own creation began to form in his head, the world, magic, and time, helping create them as even he couldn't simply imagine everything that had happened in this persona's life.

His tale also managed to change his clones, from simple clones, to the living puppet warriors that were now similar to those other immortal members of the Hyuuga main that Haru himself was the head of, and only actual living member of for the time being. Their creation hadn't gone as it originally did. According to Fuhen's version of events, which did become history, they were created when twenty-six warriors that had sworn fealty to Fuhen when he was around twenty, decided to serve him and his family for the rest of eternity or as long as they could be around. He had saved them from fates worse than death, they were honorable samurai, but their lords had cast them out after they had been framed, they had lost their purposes in life, and he had given such a thing back to them, only asking that they follow him.

He had actually saved the life of a priestess, and he was sure that that action would cost him the creation of yet another addition to his army of alter egos, but that was still a long time in the future...hopefully. He had done many a good deed after rebelling from traditions and expectations.

He didn't mention who his parents were, he didn't need to as the person he talked to simply came up with his own conclusions, which Fuhen did not confirm nor deny, he simply continued his tale of adventure, which ended up with him walking to the bridge where they all were with his platoon of immortals behind him ready for action.

"I'm rather impressed," Tazuna said, "I didn't know that there were such problems in the court, thank you for sharing your story with me. But I'm afraid that I won't be able to help you since we've only just gained our freedom from that tyrant Gato."

"That's alright," Fuhen said, "It is not I that needs help, but the people of Nami, had I been here when my family had been assassinated they might have had a chance to have lived or not, whether I would have survived the encounter then is something we may never know. But I know that it is a good thing that I am still alive today, for now there is still a chance for things to get better here in Nami."

"Well, good luck with your quest," Tazuna said, "I'm sorry that we can't be of much help to you."

"It's alright Tazuna-san," Fuhen sad, "I'll manage..somehow, I always manage. I've got the finances to do what needs to be done thanks for a mutual friend of ours."

"Naruto? What does he have to do with it?" Tazuna asked.

"He sent me a message a few hours before I arrived," Fuhen said, "He gave me a percentage of what he managed to get from Gato to me, and by extension to Nami no Kuni. I'll be going now, I need to get this place up and running again, some of Gato's subordinates, the ones running the rest of the country from the 'shadows' still need eliminating. This is the perfect chance for someone else to take Gato's place, and I'm not about to let that happen."

"Like I said," Tazuna said, "I wish you luck in your quest, and may you succeed."

Fuhen simply smiled slightly, nodded to the old man and left the house, he ordered two of his guard to stay with the town and guard it from those that would exploit its new found freedom. In his history, he usually made sure not to stand out too much, asking those he had saved to keep their mouths shut and as he didn't really like the attention that spreading tales of him could get him, it would also make his ability to help people harder if everyone knew who he was and what he had already done. Though it also made finding work a little bit harder.

He still lacked a story about his magical mastery, and simply decided that he'd make something up in the future if his ability ever came into question. He was like a Senin in a way, since he could do magic, it was something that some of the legendary and mythical ones were known to be able to do, or the Tengus too, anyway.

He traveled across the country, going from town to town, village to village, and either killing or sending the former subordinates of Gato packing. Leaving a samurai to keep the place safe. He had enough of them, up until he reached the capital, where the former subordinates, the ones that were still alive, had gathered their strength and had taken over the courts. They decided to take a last stand, it was an all or nothing thing.

They gathered, with their vast fortunes from all the criminal acts that they had committed as well as acts against humanity that they had done, a veritable army of mercenaries comprised of regular bad guys and the occasional shinobi. After all, what was one man against an army of ruthless killers that would do next to anything for money.

Each of the towns and villages of Nami no Kuni had been conquered by Gato and his subordinates through fear tactics, they had taken out the ray of hope for each place, showing that heroes were losers. So Fuhen just did as he did as Naruto, he brought back hope to the people. He became what they needed, the soldier to fight for them, but at the same time gave them what they needed most, a backbone and hope. They gained back their confidence when he did his thing alongside his samurai. He told them not his name, only that he owed Nami too much to let such suffering continue to prosper.

"*"

With Fuhen preparing for war against something akin to the Yakuza, Naruto and his party were in Konoha, the jounins explaining to the Hokage what had happened, while the genin beat a hasty retreat home, save for Naruto who needed to stay as the official representative of the Uzumaki clan, Shiro was just a stand in and a guardian after all and he was also the crown prince of Mizu.

With them in the office was a bound and gagged Yugito, who had a team of Anbu with their blades drawn and pointed in her direction as a safety precaution, while a chakra suppression seal tag had been smacked onto her ass, of all places.

"So...you managed to capture the Nibi no Jinchuuriki?" the Hokage asked the jounin and Naruto, even though the answer was right there in his office bound, gagged, and vulnerable.

"Hai," the four replied.

"You do know that there will be inter-village consequences for this?" the Hokage said.

"Hai," three of the four said, Kakashi thought about it first before actually having the audacity to just nod, even though the situation was so serious.

"Alright then," the Hokage said, "Since it was the Sakujo, Hyuuga, and near Uzumaki head, that were the ones to actually get the jinchuuriki, and since you," he looked pointedly at Kakashi, "Were far too busy thinking of other things. I shall be placing her in the care of said three clan heads. Kumo will be wanting her safe return, damning the conditions, but they will still fight hard for her. She is still a weapon for that village, as well as family to the Raikage."

"We understand that Hokage-sama," Haru said, becoming the voice of the group, "Though I am unwilling to personally house her as her home village and my clan are not on good terms."

"I would love to keep her, but my clan's wouldn't feel all that comfortable, what with our luck going here and there and everywhere," Seigen said.

"Shiro-jiji wouldn't mind," Naruto spoke up, "I'll take her, I can hand her best out of the three of us, and if worse comes to worse, we could always request a Saganiki clansman to come visit and seal her up real tight."

"How do you...never mind," the Hokage said, thinking that it would be better if he didn't know how Naruto knew of that clan, "Any questions that need raising? Any comments? Any clarifications needed? Or is there anything else that I need to know?"

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, "With all due respect, I was the leader of the mission to Nami, and I would have appreciatd being breifed on what the additional support knew, what intel they had. As well as the other things that they did and why you are being so lenient with them with the way that they simply let Momochi Zabuza leave alive. Not to mention how one of my students seemed to hold more authority during them mission than myself."

"They may or may not have had another mission," the Hokage said, "What it might have been is of no concern to you Jounin. As for Naruto, well, in his earlier report you didn't seem to be acting like much of a leader, or teacher focusing your attention on only your other two students."

"But Sasuke needs all the help he can get, and Sakura needs the help even more," Kakashi said, "One's an orphan and the other is from a relatively civilian family. I couldn't just abandon them to themselves, and Naruto seemed to be doing fine on his own. He didn't need my instruction. Going off on his own without informing me however was another thing entirely."

"We knew about it," Seigen said, "We didn't think to inform you about it since you were too busy with the Uchiha and Haruno to care."

"For once I shall agree with Seigen, even though he wouldn't really make much of a good teacher himself," Haru said.

"Well there you have it Jounin," the Hokage told Kakashi, clearly disappointed in the man that had been personally trained by the Yondaime Hokage himself, a man that cherished each of his students and didn't show blatant favoritism, "You are dismissed Kakashi, and after the Chuunin exams are over I whether or not Naruto makes Chunin he shall be taken off of your hands and you shall receive a replacement. Is that understood?"

"Hai Hokage sama," Kakashi said without much enthusiasm, and left the office, with the thought that at least he now had more time to himself, the last truly loyal Uchiha, and Haruno Sakura. Mikoto didn't count since she married Uzumaki Shiro.

"Now that Kakashi is gone," the Hokage said, "Would you mind sharing with me what you plan on doing with her?"

"You think the Anbu will not gossip about such juicy news?" Seigen noted.

"Your right," the Hokage said and motioned for the Anbu to all leave, they hesitantly left not wanting to leave their boss alone, even with friendlies, "_I'm the Hokage for crying out loud, I can take care of myself..._" the Hokage mumbled the last bit, but Naruto caught it.

"Well..." since the Anbu were gone Naruto stepped forward, while the other two moved to each side of the kunoichi, "I guess we'll just watch over her for the time being. While you come up with something to tell the Raikage, you know, get some stuff from him, a better trade agreement, and the like. If they try to get her back through less than nice means, we could always send her to the Bloody Mist."

"I don't think I'd wish that fate to anyone in Kumo if I was you Naruto," the Hokage said, "It is said that Mizu no Kuni, Kiri especially, absolutely hates Kumo, and wouldn't help them even if the fate of the world depended on their cooperation."

"I wouldn't go that far," Naruto said, "Though the threat would really be something nice on the negotiations table, existence of a treaty with Kiri or not."

"Well, it sounds like a plan," the Hokage said, "I'll consider it when talking with the council. Now is there anything else I need to know?"

"Namikaze Fuhen is in play," Naruto said seriously, he knew that the Hokage knew what he was talking about when the old man turned a little bit pale at the possibilities, "It's not that bad, it's just Nami."

"This could prove rather problematic if it ever came to light that you have close ties to more than one daimyo," the Hokage said, they apparently didn't care that a certain Kunoichi was listening in on their conversation, since she did have a ward around her that more or less left her scared since all of her senses were shut down save for sight, "It could...nevermind, you already have a lot of famous friends and family members as it is. I just worry that you'll cause me to grow old a lot faster."

"I know," Naruto said, "So...well...I could ask Shiro-jiji to help with the getting rid of the cat if it would make you feel safer or something."

"Please do that," the Hokage said, "I would appreciate it."

"Alright old man," Naruto said.

"How do we take her to the compound?" Seigen asked all of a sudden, as Naruto took the Hyuuga persona's place.

"Any way you wish to," the Hokage said, "Though in chains would be a bit too embarassing and would be bad for our goody goody image."

"We'll let her walk on her own," Seigen said taking Haru's place.

"*"

The group of four gathere a lot of odd looks and some looks of hostility, Naruto couldn't tell who was glared at more, himself or Yugito. It was a different experience, but not a very pleasant one. Seigen glared back, while Haru went all Hyuuga on everyone around them. He was ice cold to them all.

They walked in relative silence, the kunoichi of the group was in the middle of the three males and kept her head down, unwilling to look anywhere but the ground. She was in enemy territory after all, a prisoner, a hostage, a captive. She was their to do with as they pleased, there was even that talk of letting some brats have their way with her. She didn't like her situation at all.

When they finally reached the edge of the Uzumaki property, Yugito was shocked at the reception the group received, it was as if a whole clan had assembled for their arrival. There were a bunch of Hyuuga, and another clan, while people that actually stood out was a man and a woman, along with the Uchiha.

"Welcome home," Shiro greeted them, "I see you've brought someone new, a possible future wife of one of you clan heads perhaps?"

"I shudder at the thought," Haru stated haughtily.

"Too young for me," Seigen said.

"Shiro-jiji!" Naruto whined half embarrased, while some of the Sakujo clansmen laughed.

"Well, aren't you going to introduce her?" Shiro said, impatiently, "I may not be fond of Kumo-nin or Kaminari citizens at all for that matter, but she is a guest, so I shall bear that in mind."

"Yugito-san, this is Shiro-jiji," Naruto introduced the girl to the time-traveling man, "Shiro-jiji, this is Yugito-san, she's also the Nibi no Jinchuuriki."

"Nice to meet you," Shiro said, "Nibi, that's nice to know, she's one of the more...well...nicer parts of that damnable creature."

"Excuse me? What do you mean by that?" Yugito asked, after getting caught off guard by the comment.

"Oh, you're with us after all," Shiro said, "I had thought that you'd still be off in lala land. As for what I meant with that comment, its simple really. Ichibi was insane, and is now dead. The Kyuubi suffered a similar fate earlier on. The Sanbi has no host and is scattered about, the rest are either in containers or out and about in the world. That is what I meant. Since you shall be staying with us, you will have to work a bit, earn your keep and all that."

"While you may be a prisoner of the village, your room and board will not be a free one," Mikoto decided to continue for her husband, "I expect you to help me around the house, as well as the shopping for supplies and such. Is that understood young lady?"

"Yes, ma'm," Yugito said, she felt like she was being ordered around by royalty for some reason.

"Good," Shiro said, "Naruto, I'm leaving her in your care for the time being, so show her to a room, and we'll all see each other at the feast tonight to celebrate your return."

"Hai," Naruto said, and motioned for Yugito to follow after him, while Haru went off to do what Hyuugas do, and Seigen went off to do stuff with his clan.


	57. Chapter 57

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-seven**_

It was rather odd for Kumo to receive a message from Konoha, but what would have been odder was if they received something from Kiri. There would have been mass panic if Kiri sent the Raikage a message, what with all the failed invasion attempts that the village had set out to attempt in the past.

The message was rather simple, the Hokage being a bit bold and daring at the time, though when a chunin actually did mail the message he tried to get it back, but apparently those mail or messenger-nin really did make sure that any package handed to them would reach its destination, most of the time. The Hokage was rather unlucky in his attempt to replace the message.

The message simply said:

_Dear Raikage,_

_We, Konohagakure no Sato, are in possession of your other Jinchuuriki. We are aware that you have two, a more powerful one, and the cat. We think that it would be for the best that we keep this weak one. One that one of our GENIN managed to defeat. With that said, if you want to have her back, you will comply with ALL of Konoha's demands. If We want you to hand over your Village's Forbidden Scroll, you will hand over your village's secrets. _

_If for some reason you try to take her back by force We will be happy to send her bound, gagged, and blindfolded, to Kirigakure no Sato. While it would be cruel to actually send one of yours there, We don't really need such a weak kunoichi within our walls, so what better way to dispose of useless trash than by handing it over to people that would appreciate her more._

_We hear that the stench of blood that sometimes permeates the air around the village is produced by the blood that flows from the wounds of captive Kumo-nin. _

_We won't be asking much during the negotiations, but your representative will have to just nod, smile, look pretty, and sign the papers. No reading necessary, you just have to comply with our demands. That is all._

_Sincerely and Cordially,_

_Hokage-sama_

_ps. We own your ass now bitch._

Needless to say the Raikage was furious, but at the same time shuddering on the inside of what could happen to one of his relatives if he acted rashly and sent out teams to retrive Yugito from Konoha. He respected the Sandaime Hokage, but this...this really made him think that the man hadn't gone soft. But the sheer audacity and disrespect in the letter couldn't go unpunished. He'd think of something, Kumo couldn't allow itself to be seen as a bitch to another hidden village. The Kage already had to bow to the Daimyo, he didn't need to do it to another kage as well.

He assembled the best stategic minds his village had its disposal, and decided to have a meeting with them before proceeding. He didn't want to botch up the peace that had settled over the world, even though he didn't agree with the other Kages when it came to their demilitarization efforts.

Though he wasn't all that sure about Kiri's thoughts on the matter either, they had only sent a representative during the talks and discussions on the matter for some reason as well. It was probably due to the supposed unrest the the country and village had been undergoing at the time.

She could handle herself, he doubted that Konoha would really send her to Kiri, but it was better to not risk it. He doubted that she would not be treated right in the the village. He doubted that she would be left at the tender mercies of the Hyuuga.

How wrong the Raikage was on that account, as Yugito, when not with the princess of Hi no Kuni, was in the presence Haru and Fuyu. She was usually treated as just his companion, like a geisha. Ok, maybe exactly like a geisha, she was all dolled up and stuff too. It normally made Hinata more aggressive when she was training. Hiashi made sure that he kept his eldest daughter away from his clan head when he had the Kumo kunoichi around him.

"Do you enjoy parading me around the village like this?" Yugito asked one day, as she was walking around looking like a proper lady, making a few guys drool just by looking at her, while Haru walked beside her, and Fuyu watched their backs, marveling at how he could blend in, even though he was normally a big ass snake that normally demanded sacrifices.

"I'm not parading you around," Haru said to her, ignoring the drooling masses of men, he had placed a spell on Yugito that would make her give off a kind of Veela like allure, "I'm just enjoying the walks around the village as well as a certain Hyuugas intense hatred of you. Its quite cute."

"You're also enjoying my suffering, aren't you," she said, "I'm a kunoichi, not some lady."

"You'd make for a very appreciated bride one day," Haru said, "Though Fuyu wouldn't be interested."

"I'm married already, Haru-sama, I thought you knew that," Fuyu said, and indeed he was.

"That's why I said you wouldn't be interested," Haru said, "Unless you're into adultery...are you?"

"I'm not into that sort of thing," Fuyu said, "Now, please forget that I am even here. I'm supposed to play the silent servant that follows you around while you go out on these walks, acting all Hyuuga while the masses pay more attention to her than the fact that you talk to me."

"You are the biggest ass the Hyuuga clan has to offer, you know that," Yugito said, "I don't even know how your family can stand you, what with the way you treat people."

"You have no idea what you are talking about," Haru said, "You've never actually seen me interact with my clan have you."

"I haven't," she said, "But the former head keeps his distance from you, and he sure likes to keep his daughter away from you."

"There's a reason for that," Haru said, "He doesn't like getting hurt more than he should during training with her."

"Oh, really," she said, not believing him.

"She really doesn't like you," Haru said, "Walking around with you in that get-up motivates her into becoming better. Not only is she trying to impress me, but she is also getting stronger. She wants to beat your ass into the ground just for spending so much time around me."

"You're sick you know that," she said to him, "I think I've lost what respect I've had for you. Playing with a girl's affections like you are. Just to make sure that your clan remains strong."

"I'm not playing with anyone's feelings," Haru said, then motioned for Fuyu to leave them as they had arrived back at the edge of the Uzumaki grounds, "I'll return her feeling eventually, she just isn't ready for a relationship at the present, and neither am I."

"You really are confusing to me, you know that," she said, "Can I get back into my normal get up now?"

"You may," he said, "But you might want to prepare yourself, Mikoto wants to lecture you on how to act like a proper woman, and future housewife."

"I don't want to be a housewife! I'm a kunoichi for crying out loud!" she said exasperatedly.

"Could've fooled me," Haru said as he turned to walk away, "You've been given countless chances to run away, and yet here you are, acting the part of my toy. The only person I am playing with, is you. Kitty cat, see you tomorrow."

The Raikage wouldn't have liked the interaction that Yugito and Haru had spent with one another. It was rather like torture for the girl, and Haru found a kind of sick pleasure in what he was doing. He blamed his actions and the way he treated her to her simply being one of Kumo's royal clan. He couldn't really help himself, as he had been created in the defense of the Hyuuga. He had a strong dislike for those he was supposed to defend the clan against.

He let his mind wander while he walked back to the Hyuuga compoud, or at least to his house. He needed some rest.

Seigen kept trying not to entertain thoughts of the upcoming Chunin exams that were scheduled to be held in Konoha. It was an interesting time to see how well the other villages were when it came to strength, after all the strength of a group was determined by their weakest member, and when it came to the shinobi military Genin were at the bottom most rung.

One day as he was walking around the village, his head in the clouds, he walked into the Hokage's office just as the man had concluded a meeting with some Anbu. It also just so happened that a little kid with a too big for himself scarf charged into the office and tried to stab a kunai into the Hokage.

"I'm going to get you this time old man!" the kid shouted with his kunai raised, ready to strike, the Hokage didn't do anything, nor did he need to do anything.

Seigen simply acted reflexively, he grabbed onto the kid, and slammed him against a wall and proceeded to turn him into a mummy using his own overly large scarf, he then pinned the brat to the wall with his own kunai, before looking at the Hokage rather lazily.

"Does this happen often?" Seigen asked, "Even Naruto didn't try to blatantly attack you in your own office. Though I do have to admit that there were those times that he did successfully knock you out."

"Yes, I do remember those times," Hiruzen said, "Now that you have prevented my grandson from succeeding with his assassination attempt, what do you plan on doing now?"

"I dunno," Seigen said, "I actually had my head in the clouds when I walked in here...which reminds me...should I untie the kid?"

"Don't bother," Hiruzen said, "He got himself into this mess, he should be able to get out of it. Don't worry about it, he's my grandson, he'll find a way."

"Sure he will," Seigen said, "Well, I've got nothing to do...got a mission for a bored jounin?"

"Not at the moment," the Hokage said, "But I'm sure you'll find yourself pretty busy in a few hours."

"I'm not looking forward to it," Seigen said, as he noticed a kind of mischievous look in the older man's eyes, it was scary, so he left as fast as he could, which was pretty fast, he ran throught several walls as he made his exit from the building.

AS he continued walking around the village, his head no longer in the clouds, he sensed that there was someone following him. He had a feeling that it was that kid he had nearly beat up in the Hokage's office. The kid looked like he had some promise, and not because he was from a very prominent clan, but because he had the insanity that one needed to have in order to even want to attack the Hokage in his office.

"You can come out now kid," Seigen said, "I sensed you from the very moment you started tailing me."

A cloud of smoke exploded to reveal the kid with the scarf.

"As would be expected of you boss!" the kid exclaimed, happily.

"Why'd you call me boss, kid?" Seigen asked as he turned around to face the kid, "And of course I'd be able to sense you, your stealth skills might be good for a kid your age, but I'm a jounin."

"Cool! I'm Sarutobi Konohamaru," the kid introduced himself, "Train me!"

"Now why would I want to go and do that?" Seigen asked the kid, "I'm a jounin, very busy am I."

"No your not," Konohamaru said, "You asked granpa for a mission awhile ago."

"Alright, fine, I'm not busy," Seigen said, "But why should I train a kid like you?"

"Cause I need to get stronger!" the kid said.

"Not a good enough reason kid," Seigen said as he turned around to start wandering around the village again, "You're boring."

"B-but I need to get stronger to become Hokage!" the kid shouted as he went after Seigen, and tried to tackle him to the ground, but only managed to pass through Seigen.

"I'll give you another chance, kid," Seigen said, "Why do you want to be Hokage?"

"To be acknowledged!" the kid said, "I'm tired of people seeing the 'honorable grandson'. I want them to see me and respect me."

"Nice reason kid," Seigen said, "But no dice. Not interested if that's all you want. I've got a friend with a similar dream, but he wants to become Hokage for a different reason."

"Who?" the kid was genuinely curious about the matter, and Seigen could tell by the tone of his voice.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Seigen said, "He's a genin. He's also got better reasons that you do. So no dice, see you around kid."

He had not only attacked the kid infront of his grandfather. He had also talked to the kid like he was just another person. He had also tried to blatantly ignore the kid. He had refused to do as the kid tried to order him around to do. He had done everything he could think of to get the kid to stop bothering him. He had apparently made a big and good enough impression on the kid that caused the kid to get stronger on his own, in an attempt to impress Seigen enough to consider training him.

Naruto got a little bit fed up with the kid's attempts that he decided to confront him with his core form. Seigen had other responsibilities after all, and couldn't keep avoiding them due to some little kid.

"Hey Konohamaru!" Naruto called out to the kid that had been trying to sneak onto the Sakujo clan ground found within the Uzumaki lands, "Get over here before I kick you back to your gramps."

The kid panicked a bit at being caught by some older blonde, but decided to comply, he didn't want to get in trouble with his gramps, though he did doubt that the blonde really would kick him to the Tower when he found out who he was. Then when he thought about it the blonde knew his name, so there was a posibility that...

"Ow!" the kid shouted as he had been kicked by Naruto when the kid spaced out a bit.

"You took too long," Naruto said, "Hokage-jiji's grandson or not, you shouldn't try and trespass on private property, not even the Hokage is stupid enough to get into the Sakujo clan grounds."

"So...you know where Seigen is today?" the kid asked.

"He's out of the village on a mission," Naruto said, "He told me about some kid harrassing him whenever he wasn't doing anything. And I'd recognize you anywhere kid. You kinda remind me of myself back before I met all my friends and family...though the bit about the family part did help a lot with the friend making department."

"I remind you of you? Why?" the kid asked.

"Well, from what Seigen told me," Naruto said, "You want to be Hokage, just not for the right reasons. I want...no...I will be Hokage one day, but not because I want to be acknowledged, but because I want to be able to better protect my precious people. You become stronger when you have people to protect."

"So you're the friend that Seigen said wants to be Hokage," the kid said, then went on with his addtional demand, "Train me!"

"No way kid," Naruto said, "I can't really teach you anything, since most of the stuff I know is too advanced for you, heck most of the stuff I know is too advanced for a genin, but I know a guy who could help you."

"Really?" the kid said.

"Yeah," Naruto said, "Follow me, and remember to be on your best behavior, his clan might not like you being around. Heck most of them just tolerate me."

"Ok," the kid said, as he really would like to be trained, he told Naruto that his teacher kept talking about shortcuts but was too boring to listen to. Naruto then told him that there were no such things as shortcuts when it came to important things like dreams and becoming strong or Hokage. He even beat the jounin in question using a jutsu that was later on listed in the Forbidden Scroll due to its effectiveness in a somewhat combat sitatuation, it would also surely work against the Hokage.

Naruto led the kid to the Hyuuga district within Konoha proper, they walked through the gate unhindered by any Hyuuga as none dared get in the way of Naruto, who was a close friend of the clan head. They walked through the compound in search of Haru, not that Naruto didn't know where his other body was, but he liked to take the normal route which was by asking Hinata.

The girl was more than happy to help and rocketed away, she was like a bloodhound when it came to Haru, but she turned into a rather shy girl when he was actually around. The three fond him feeding some koi at a koi pond, with Yugito sitting near him and acting all happy, even though she wanted to run away from the sadistic bastard that Haru was turning out to be when it concerned her or any Kumo-nin for that matter.

"Haru!" Naruto called out after he thanked Hinata who turned a little bit red and ran off, then dragged Konohamaru with him to the illustrious clan head.

"What do you want?" Haru asked as he threw in a few more crumbs which the koi greedily ate, he then noticed the kid, "Ah, and you must be Konohamaru, nice to meet you kid. I'm Hyuuga Haru, how might I help such a strong young man such as yourself?"

"Can you train me? Please?" the kid asked, he needed to be polite since Naruto told him that Haru was a clan head, and his gramps would get mad if he was disrespectful.

"I've heard that you like pranks," Haru said dismissing Yugito with but a wave of his hand, Naruto deciding to leave himself and the boy alone while he escorted the disgruntled cat back to the Uzumaki home.

"I do," the kid said.

"Well then," Haru said smirking evily, "I have a feeling that we'll get along quite nicely. The old geezers in the clan councils will be going through hell once I'm through with you."

"What does pranking have to do with training?" Konohamaru asked.

"Everything!" Haru said excitedly, his mind racing with prank ideas already, he wasn't the most insane of the Hyuuga for nothing, it was part of the reason why the Hokage didn't like sending him out on missions.

"Since you're gonna train me, could you explain? Please?" Konohamaru asked, or pleaded, he got this feeling telling him to run away and not think about becoming a shinobi ever again.

"Pranking has everything to do with being a shinobi," Haru said, "You need good information gathering skills to know how to do a prank, you need stealth to not get caught, you need imagination to almost always be original, you've got to be resourceful and know how to use everything around you to your advantage. You've got to be aware of your surroundings at all times to be sure to always have an escape route. There are loads of ways that pranks help make a better than average ninja. The best ninjas were pranksters after all."

"Really?" Konohamaru asked, disbelievingly.

"Yes, really," Haru said, "Now my young apprentice, when you are not being taught by Ebisu, you will come find me and we shall prank the village to HELL and back! Got it?"

"Hai!" Konohamaru had a feeling that if he didn't sound enthusiastic that something bad was going to happen to him.

"Yes! I've converted yet another to pranking!" Haru exclaimed, most of the Hyuuga learned to ignore such words, since it was well known that the really powerful people were the ones most prone to having bouts of insanity, just look at Orochimaru that was one sick yet powerful bastard.

"So...what do we do now?" Konohamaru asked, a bit excited but at the same time a small part of him was shouting for him to run away and not to look back.

"Well, its too late in the day for pranking," Haru said, "Follow me then, you'll be needing to master the past, to take control of the present, and to be able to steer the future into one you would want. To the library, we'll bring along Hanabi too, she needs to study as much as you do."

"Uh..okay," the kid said as he diligently followed Haru, partly out of awe and partly out of fear.

#

Fuhen was not a man to be trifled with. He not only managed to make sure that a majority of the people living in a town or village witnessed their oppressor be taken down, run out, or killed, by himself whilst the oppressor was doing his oppressing. He needed to show the people that there was hope, and that heroes existed in the world. He was that hero, he needed their support after all if he was to take the reign of the country.

When he arrived at the capital of Nami, he found a veritable army waiting just outside its walls waiting for him. The left overs of Gato's tyranical reign were attempting to have a last stand against twenty-seven men. Since Fuhen knew where his finaly targets were, where the oppressors had holed themselves up in, he summoned his guards to him all twenty-six of them.

This way war, not exactly a civil war, just one of succession. The courts had been emptied of the corrupt, there was no longer a need for such people when the former subordinates of Gato could run things on their own, there was no longer a daimyo to manipulate anyway.

With his army of twenty-six immortals he began marching for the capital, he planned on bulldozing his way through the army that stood between him and his goal. He was no shinobi, but he was a warrior nontheless, one that could easily strike down his enemies with but a whispered word.

Word of his deeds had spread across the land, he was known far and wide now as a hero and a savior of the people. This ressurected some stories and rumors of a blonde that righted wrongs, and did some saving of people in other lands, small times things that were only spread about as gossip and rumor, the full truth never being released. Loose lips were aplenty in the land, but now was not the time for Fuhen to care for such things.

He never really asked or made those people he helped promise to keep their mouths shut, just not to spread the word of his deeds and make him essentially famous. He just asked that they not spread the word.

He stood before the army of mercenaries and nuke-nin, undeterred by their number. It was clear who had the upper hand.

The samurai drew their blades in preparation for the fight, while Fuhen gathered his magic and shot it up into the sky and into the water. The capital was near the sea that kept the country between the rest of the water related lands and itself.

He was a Nami-Kaze for a reason, he was the very waves that the land was named after, he was also the very wind that powered storms. He was the living maelstorm. He was Fuhen the everlasting maelstorm. The powers of the waves and of the winds combined. He was chaos.

And he was about to kick some bad guy ass.

The army of hired help didn't mind the rapidly approaching and brewing storm at first. Their bosses promised to pay them well enough to ignore such disastrous things. They should have sought shelter or ran as early as the beginning.

Some Nami citizens knew that Fuhen was headed for the capital, they also knew of the army prepared to meet him. They came to warn to warn him but were rooted to the just beyond the battlefield as soon as they caught sight of him and his samurai.

His samurai charged and cut each opponent they met on the field with brutal efficiency, taking each man out as swiftly as possible. Their movements enhanced by magic. Their blades sharpened like blades of wind by the same force.

While Fuhen himself ran with his arms spread out at his sides, each one crackling with lightning as the sky lit up with such things, streaking down from the heavens and forming a lightning chain as soon as the first one struck a man. More followed after the first, and as Fuhen moved through the army, more were struck down by his lightning. The winds overhead eventually also formed tornadoes that crashed down and sucked away the lives of the bought and paid for. The waters rose up from out of the waves of the sea and formed serpents that struck at any man that dared to try and escape through the sea. The nuke-nin had never encountered such power, and were unable to do anything about their predicament save for either surrender or die by drowning or burning. They were dealing with real lightning and not the kind that was formed using chakra either.

He continued to charge, one could say that he had read about some lighting attack that was really loud, while at the same time was supposed to be a sure kill jutsu. Well this was similar, only that the lighting in his hands was more like a switch for the lightning from overhead. As he ran those living around him that refused to surrender to him died where they stood, burnt to crispy shells or smoldering ashes by the sheer intensity of the lightning.

He simply ran into the city, and into the castle at the center of it, where the oppressors thought that they would be safe in. Fuhen's immortal samurai made short work out of the army of hired murderers, they cared not for any injuries their sustained. They were healed of it, and on some occasions they were aided by some other worldy force, Ryoku must have been a tad bit bored, but didn't want his descendant to know about his helping hand.

The battle ended in victory, Gato was truly taken out of the picture of the country's future. Fuhen would not be allowing anyone to take advantage of the country again. He sat on the throne of his ancestors, and fell asleep while his samurai chose to guard him, they needed no sleep and so were able to keep all those that wished to disturb their master away from him.

It was a week later that he decided it was time to see his visitors, they being the appointed representatives of the twenty-six villages and towns that were found throughout the land, small continent or island that it was. Tazuna was one of the first to congratulate him on his win, he was also the first one to inform Fuhen that since those that had conspired with Gato were no longer amongst the living, Fuhen would need all the help he could get to get everything back in order.

Fuhen selected Tazuna to help him find suitable people to fill in the ministerial positions that were left vacant, the man was also appointed a position, one of architect and Minister of Trade due to being the mastermind behind the bridge that would make trade all the more easier.

To showcase their willingness to join the business world, Fuhen decided that they would be advertising the country's wares in Konoha during the Chunin exams, people from all over the Elemental Continent were sure to attend, and it would be a great way for those select few that were to go to have a nice paid vacation.


	58. Chapter 58

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-eight**_

Naruto and his team had gone out of the village to go on a few more C-rank missions, it was all in preparation for the Chunin exams, Kakashi wanted his prized students to have more experience before the possibly life changing event. He still focused on Sasuke and Sakura believing that they had more potential. He believed that he owed his Uchiha teammate too much to lose focus. Had he known who's kid Naruto was, he proably would have been a better teacher, but alas the Hokage hadn't deemed him worthy of knowing the secret.

With Naruto out on missions, constantly improving his art, the art of the kinjutsu, and Seigen busying himself with out of the village missions ranging from theft to assassinations, Haru was left in the village with nothing to do but continue to antagonize the Kumo Kunoichi and get Hinata even more spiteful of her. He didn't really know why he enjoyed it so much, having a girl grow to detest the ground he walked on and having another girl compete for his affections with someone that would rather shove a kunai through his forehead.

Kumo sent a delegation to Konoha, some with the intention of trying what had succeeded in the past during the Hyuuga Affair, go through the negotiations and fuck with the village on their way out. But this time it wasn't a kidnapping but a rescue. They thought that they could do it again, but this time without the negative effects or consequences.

They arrived within the village and had to deal with the overly happy Hokage and his Anbu guards who were just itching for a reason to shed some blood, they had after all been on the receiving end of Haru and Konnohamaru's brutal pranking.

The whole of the village was on high alert, except maybe for the Uzumakis and their allies, they really didn't look like they cared. Mikoto still continued to boss around Yugito while she was still living with them. The wife of Shiro still was disappointed in Yugito's inability to make a good housewife, she didn't really make an effort to do the things that Mikoto wanted her to be able to do.

To put it plainly and simply, Yugito wanted to go home, things in Konoha were just insane compared to her life hidden in the clouds. She knew what was expected of her, she knew how to act, she knew what to do. She would train, go on missions, and spend time with her comrades. But in Konoha, she expected to be treated as some sort of prisoner, not as some guest or foreign exchange person. She couldn't stand not really knowing what was going on, a part of her actually believed that it was some kind of form of torture, there was still the threat of being shipped off to Kiri bound, gagged, and blindfolded. Shiro always reminded her of that fact so that she'd behave and do as Mikoto demanded of her to do, he also was perpetually smiling when he said it, as if he was a son of Kiri himself.

She didn't know how close to the truth she was, and it wasn't likely that she'd know about it soon. She was happy when she managed to catch a glimpse of the Kumo delegates, while the Raikage himself hadn't come, he did send some competent jounin along with Killer Bee, her fellow and more senior jinchuuriki. She knew they were planning something but she couldn't approach them thanks to Haru giving her strict instructions about not trying anything before the new treaties and agreements were signed.

She hoped that they would get her away from Konoha before having to sign the things. The more she hoped, the more she noticed that the Uzumaki lands grew less and less secure. When she had been told that she had been given lots of chances to get away, she didn't believe the one speaking, but it began to look like they were making it blatantly obvious that they were giving her kumo comrades a lot of leeway when it came to trying to get her out of the village.

What she didn't know was a lot of things were being put into play. The Sakujo clan were exercising their use of their bloodlines, the ones with the Bunshisetsu Kekkai Genkai were running around the perimeter of the land keeping track of her movements, every single move she made and breath she took, they knew about it, and recorded it. These were the jounin of the clan with the ability. She thought that she wasn't being watched, when in truth there were a lot of eyes contantly on her at all times. Those with the Gouin bloodline were also using it, they were causing their allies' levels of luck to rise as much as possible. Shiro was sure that the Kumo-nin were going to try something, what with their having the Hachibi no Jinchuuriki part of the delegation.

It was during the day before the delegation was to sign the treaties and other documents that the kumo-nin decided to make their move. They had enough time to scout out the areas where Yugito frequented, and found that security was non-existent, it was as if no one really cared about Yugito's possible rescue.

While the jounin were happy at the development, Killer Bee was suspicious, things couldn't be that easy. Such things never were, it wouldn't be a good idea to underestimate a fellow great hidden village, but such a chance couldn't be given up so easily.

As they approached the Uzumaki lands the jounin grew more and more bold, and actually used the door of the house where Yugito was staying to get it. As soon as they were in, Bee deciding to keep watch from the outside, was the only one not to suffer the house going under complete and total lockdown. But he did witness all of the Bunshisetsu wielding jounin of the Sakujo clan appear before him as if they had been there the whole time.

"You chose the wrong time to attempt a rescue," Sakujo Kishuu said, "I am Sakujo Kishuu, Jounin of Konohagakure no Sato, prepare for the beating of your life Kumo-nin."

"I look forward to it," Bee said seriously (a/n not too good with the rapping), "Bring it on, yo."

"You heard him men,' Kishuu said, "Let us make Seigen-sama proud!"

"Hai!" the other jounin said as they vanished, they were not even blurs, and the jinchuuriki was surprised that there were jounin that could move at such speeds, but he wasn't a jinchuuriki for nothing, since they were caught he might as well pull out his bijuu chakra. The poisonous chakra enveloped him just as the jounin passed through him, some were burned, while others managed to accomplish their goals, it was not to harm the jinchuuriki, it was more to humiliate the man.

Seigen had a thing for passing through his opponents and remembering to take a souvenir, well he had instructed his clansmen to take souvenirs of the clothing kind. They were stripping the man with their speed, as well as taking away his weapons, eventually leaving him with only his chakra.

"Hey! What the heck!" Bee exclaimed when he had nothing more than a leaf protecting his privates, "Take me seriously!"

"No way," Kishuu said, "We have our orders. Phase one complete. Phase two begin," he smiled evilly at the end, "Feel honored that you shall be experiencing one of our clan kinjutsu."

"Wha..." Bee was unable to complete his sentence as he was suddenly punched in the gut with a chakra powered fist, followed by another and another and another, the Bunshisetsu users were running all over the place, punching the man in various places, using their chakra and sheer speed to enhance their hits. Each fist felt different from the last, and each one felt even more powerful. Each man managed to get within the poisonous cloak, and none of them were getting burned by it.

Then the hits suddenly stopped coming, and the members began reappearing around Bee once again, the only one missing was Kishuu.

"Is that it?" Bee said, only sounding winded, but not overly hurt from all the bouncing around he did, he was tougher than most thanks in part to his tenant, "How does that qualify as a kinjutsu?"

"It doesn't," one of the visible clansmen said.

"Then why'd you say that I should feel honored," Bee asked.

"You'll feel it soon enough," the same clansman said as he stepped aside Kishuu became visible, but it was only his upper body that was visible.

"Hey honey bee," Kishuu said with a predatory grin.

"What did you call me?" Bee said trying to be intimidating with only a leaf as protection, "I'mma kill you!"

"Eat this," Kishuu said and vanished, Bee vanishing as well at nearly the exact same time, when in truth Kishuu had moved so fast that he was running all the way to Kumo, the Raikage's office specifically, the molecules of his fist were packed tight as to be able to keep Bee on it at the speeds that he was moving.

The kinjutsu was that it took three members to perform, one to do the actual attack, and two others to travel at a much slower pace while carrying the belongings of the one stripped, there were two of them since the one that was going really fast with a person on his fist would be too tired to move on his own and they needed to get back to safety. There was also the fact that being so tired would make it impossible to use the bloodline ability for a while, enabling enemies to take them out in such a vulnerable state.

Hijutsu: Kōsoku-kō no sokudo yori mo, was what it was called. It was traveling faster than the speed of light, it could only be used for a short time, and afterwards the user was extremely exhausted, even doing the subconscious things become taxing. Which was why it required three people to perform successfully, the other two were to make sure that the main user managed to get home safely.

Bee was hung from a pole with only the leaf shielding his bits from the elements, while his clothes and weapons were scattered around the village with the words 'Honey Bee's Propery' attached to each and every piece. With the delivery over and done with, Kishuu suddenly stopped right in front of the Raikage's desk and slamming into it somehow not breaking it, it was thanks to the luck manipulation done to him before he confronted Bee.

"We don't recommend kidnapping a guest of Shiro-sama ever again," a Sakujo clansman said appearing just before the Raikage could make a move.

"We'll be taking our comrade with us now," the man's partner said, they both grabbed hold of Kishuu and vansihed.

"What the hell happened!" the Raikage exclaimed, his Anbu entering his office mere nano second after the trio of trespassers left.

They weren't the last bunch of shinobi to barge into the office.

A chunin ran in to report that the Raikage's brother was hogtied to a pole in the village and his belongings were scattered around the village. Soon more chunin came in to report that the jounin that were sent, save for one, had appeared at random points all over the village, without any of their clothing on, save for either a leaf to protect their privates or a diaper and a bib. It was very humiliating.

The ones in bibs, after being examined, were told that nearly all of them tenketsu had been sealed by what could only be the jyuuken, the Hyuuga had been involved. But what worried Kumo was what had happened to the one that still remained in Konoha, as well as the Nibi no Jinchuuriki.

There was no telling what horrors those two were facing due to his orders, it was one thing to sacrifice a mere jounin, but another to leave a jinchuuriki at the tender mercies of men and women that would be happy to ship such a weapon off to the bloody mist.

"*"

"I have a feeling that we'll be receiving a cat in the mail in a while," Ryoku said as he sat on his throne as his court argued about the budget, Shiro had updated him on the situation in Konoha. The Hokage needed to show that he was serious with his threat, so Kiri would be receiving two jounin from Konoha.

Within a few hours of being updated, the treaties and whatnot between Konoha and Kumo lay forgotten in some folder or drawer, while the Kumo delegation and jinchuuriki was shipped off to Kiri bound, gagged, and blindfolded, via Floo.

Mei informed him of their arrival as soon as they were spewed out of the Floo in their clan home in Kiri. He'd have gone to greet the new arrivals if he could, but he was still busy listening to court officials argue about the budget, budget meetings how he detested them. Send him the paperwork, he'd be happy with all that, but listening to these people was grating on his mind.

As soon as the meeting was over and done with, and he finally had some time on his hands, being Daimyo didn't mean that he could do anything and everything he wanted to do, he had duties and responsibilities to do after all. He made a mad dash for the wall, ignoring his guards that tried to keep up and simply vanished from sight as soon as he leapt over the walls. His newest and latest assistant submitted his letter of resignation to the next in command, Ryoku was simply too intense and random for the woman to handle.

Many people wondered how the Mizukage could handle such a random man, one who was obviously ages older than her even though he didn't look it. He spoke of people who had long since died, as well as battles that were already part of history.

He reappeared right inside the Mizukage's office, jumping out of a tea cup that had been set aside for such purposes, it freaked out the Kumo-nin that were forced to have tea with the Mizukage for the second time that day. The torture they received was more mental than physical.

They were treated like foreign dignitaries by the people, no one treated them like Kumo-nin, it was as if there was an illusion placed over them to make them look like royalty or something. The Jounin treated like a minor lord and the jinchuuriki was treated like a princess. While in a way she was, she was still within the walls of one village that was known for its dislike for Kumo as a whole.

They had been treated to food, drink, and whatever else they wanted, and some things that they didn't want. They were given massages, spa treatments, and a host of other things, they were being spoiled by the village. It was insane for something like this to be happening. It was like the entire village was high on the mist that hid them from any that sought them out.

It was mind boggling why they were being treated as they were, and having tea with the Mizukage was like having tea with the Raikage, it was a privilage reserved only for the most important of people, like a fellow Kage or a daimyo for that matter.

"How have you been enjoying your stay so far?" Ryoku's voice pierced through the silence like a knife through butter, his sudden appearance went unnoticed by the people in the room with them, not even the Mizukage seemed to sense his presence or see him, they were either ignoring him or he was really that good at his stealth. This scared the Kumo-nin. This was probably what they were waiting for, their real treatment was about to begin.

"Oh, I'm just here to check up on you," Ryoku said, whispering in both their ears at the same time, "You are the guests of Mizu no Kuni, and should be treated in the best possible way. It wouldn't do if you didn't enjoy your stay. Now tell me, is anything amiss? Do you need or want anything? Anything at all?"

"I want to go home..." the mere jounin said, his tone was one of fear and panic, he was not used to such a situation, he had only been keeping a confused face on for show, but now he really couldn't take it, he thought that normalcy was about to set in, when it was actually not, "I want to go home..."

"Oh? Is our treatment not to your liking? How about some tea with the Daimyo," Ryoku said, "We could arrange it for you, if you like."

"No...I want...I need to go home..." the man said, his mind was fracturing, he was losing his sanity, he was sure of it, "I can't take this anymore."

"It looks like you need another round at the spa," Ryoku said and motioned for one of his personas to take the man, and lead him to the spa for a bit more relaxation, he then faced Yugito and smiled at her, it was a disarming smile, the others in the room still hadn't acknowledged his presence, but they did notice the fact that the male jounin was led out of the room by Ryuumusha.

"Are you not feeling alright Nii-dono?" Mei asked, ignoring her husband completely, not that she even knew he was in the room, he was under some sort of illusions after all, it was part of the mental torture, plus it was fun for him.

"N-no Mizukage-sama..." she admitted finally, "I...I want to go home..."

She was starting to lose it too.

"Oh? It seems like those Konoha brutes didn't treat you right," she said, "Takeshi, take her somewhere nice, she needs to relax a bit more, we can't return her to Kumogakure while she's still in such a state of distress, it would not do."

"Right away Mizukage-sama," Takeshi said, he didn't have his Anbu mask on, and was acting like just another jounin.

As Tekeshi led out the nearly paicking kunoichi, Ryoku decided to appear only to his wife, while casting some notice-me-nots around their conversation.

"How have they been taking our hospitality?" Ryoku asked her.

"Why is business the first thing to pop out of your mouth?" Mei asked back, a bit irritated.

"Well, its not like I don't see you often you know," Ryoku said, "I also know that your fine, and I do love you you know," he dodged a thrown sake bottle for that comment, though she did blush a little bit, "I meant it you know. So back to business, how have they been taking our hospitality?"

"They managed to hide their confusion and fear very well at first," Mei said, "But it seems like your little stunt was the final straw. The man looked like he was about to go retreat into his happy place, while the girl looked to be about to follow down the same path."

"Great!" Ryoku exclaimed, "You want me to take them off of your hands?"

"Its only been a day, they might think something amiss if you take them so soon," Mei said, "Give us a week, and you can have your new toys, though would you share with me what you've got planned?"

"I plan on setting up our eldest son!" Ryoku said, "That boy needs some stability in his life after all."

"You can't be serious," Mei said, "I mean sure Shiro's married already, happily in fact, you can't just go and rush things with our eldest, he can find love on his own you know."

"Well, how about we could use it as an excuse to improve inter-village relations in the future?" Ryoku said, "Hi no Kuni can't afford to attack us and we them, due to Shiro and Naruto."

"I already know that," Mei said, "But don't you think that a set up could ruin their chances of actually finding true love?"

"I didn't know you were a real romantic, my dearly beloved wife," Ryoku said as he sat on her desk.

"I give up," Mei said exasperated, "Do as you please Ryo-kun, just make sure that you are the one to inform your son of your plan for him."

"By the time I'm through I won't need to tell him anything," Ryoku said, gave his wife a chaste kiss and exited the room, but not before removing the notice-me-nots which led the Anbu in the office to think that they needed to train more.

"*"

Takeshi held a grudge sure, and he didn't really mind the mental torture, though he found it to be a little bit unfair to the jinchuuriki, the mere-jounin could go through it as he wasn't all that important and hadn't tried to rescue his comrade which was why he had been left in Konoha. But the jinchuuriki was another story altogether, she didn't deserve her treatment since she had only been caught doing her job. This part of Takeshi's personality was probably something he got from Ryoku, not that his father would ever admit it.

But he had his orders, and who was he to disobey his Kage and mother, who were one and the same. So he went about taking his charge to some little known ramen stand in the poorer sector of the village, where the lower class people lived. It wasn't all that popular, but Takeshi liked the food, it was something he had probably partially passed down to his great grandson, not that it was his favorite food.

While they were walking, and without her noticing, he covered her in an illusion to make what she wore blend in with the rest of the people, so that they would act more natural around her. They still treated him with respect since he was not only a jounin but the son of the Kage and the Daimyo. She thought that the respect they were showing was directed at her, and she continued to puzzle over it, and worry about the surprise at the end of the experience.

"Where are you taking me Takeshi-san?" she asked hin finally as they were near the stand, the owner and cook immediately recognized his favorite customer, and waved even though he should have been paying attentiont o his wares, Takeshi nodded back before replying to the pretty lady he had with him.

"To that ramen stand," Takeshi said, "I can tell that everything that's been happening for the past couple of hours has been overwhelming, but you'll just have to bear with it for a few more days, then you'll be away from the village, unless something else comes up that requires your return to our hospitality."

"Oh..."she said, not really knowing what to say to that or how to react to it while not giving away her confusion and fear for her future, "Why are you all being so nice to us? I mean I'm a kumo kunoichi for crying out loud."

"I dunno, maybe cause you're a guest of the village," Takeshi said, "Though I guess it must be cause we really know how to hold a grudge, just not act on it."

They had finally reached the stand and had taken their seats which halted the conversation from progressing any further, she had been answered, maybe if she played along she could divine her fate from the normal-friendly jounin that had been assigned to her by the Mizukage. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't treated her any different from the way he treated the people around them, it was all natural, and didn't feel orchestrated in some fashion unlike the other people that he had interacted with, even the Mizukage seemed to have a veil over her.

"So..." she began to say even as the food was placed before her, she noticed how the cook interacted with the jounin, they were real friends or so it seemed, there was no acting in the way they acted, it was real.

"Yeah?" Takeshi said as he heard the beginings of her question, "Something wrong? The ramen not good enough?" she didn't answer him, so Takeshi decided to tease his friend, "See! You're slipping man! I told you you need to get back into shape your cooking skills are failing, you need to find that apprentice of yours and soon, else I'll not have that heavenly ramen you used to make."

"Shut up and eat your ramen Keshi," the cook said and bonked him on the head with the laddle, before turning to Yugito, "How's the ramen?"

"It's good," she said after trying it, "It's better than everything I've eaten all day," she wasn't being polite, it was just that the food she had been fed, while high class in taste, was poisoned by the fakeness of her hosts, even though detecting such fakeness was nearly impossible, her gut was telling her that it was a trap, that something was up.

"Good huh," the cook said, then bonked Takeshi on the head again, "I told you I still got it! So how's your ma and pa?"

"They're well...them," Takeshi said, running his hand through his hair a bit, "Hehe, you know how they are. Kaa-san's still complaining about paperwork, and tou-san's been complaining about the lack of adventure in his life."

"Haha, sounds like your parents alright," the cook said, "How've you been Keshi? Last time I saw you, was a few weeks ago, mission?"

"Something like that," Takeshi replied, "You know I'm not allowed to talk about work, its all hush hush stuff."

"Yeah right," the cook said, "Like fetching a packet of pocky is so very secret when there's a convention half the contnent away."

"Hey! How'd you know about that?" Takeshi asked, "I was told only...you were the client weren't you."

"Hey, that's supposed to be classified information you know," the cook said, "I neither admit nor deny anything."

"Whatever," Takeshi said then faced his _date_, "How's the ramen? I hope it really is good since Kendo really is getting too old for his job. The taste might have changed."

"Its really good," she said, "Like Ichiraku Ramen."

She believed that she said the wrong thing since the next moment she felt a very oppressive aura fill the area, originating on the other side of the counter.

"Did you just compare my ramen to Ichiraku Ramen?" the cook said, his voice had gained a rather dangerous tone.

"Y-yes.." she hesitantly said, and did not feel reassure like she had hoped when she looked in Takeshi's direction, he was busily eating his ramen while his eyes darted around the place looking for a conventient exit.

The oppresive aura suddenly vansihed as quick at it had appeared.

"Good to hear! My enternal rival! I'll have you beat yet! YOSH!" the cook said, then replaced his two customer's bowls with big ones, filled with broth and noodles, "On the house for making my day! YES! THE FLAMES OF YOUTH AND RAMEN BURN BRIGHT WITHIN ME!"

"Ignore him and eat your ramen," Takeshi said, as if he had been visited by the Shinigami himself, "Its better that he's treating us and is high on your comparison of him with his eternal rival, rather than hitting me with his laddle."

"Well you did antagonize him with your teasing," she noted as she enjoyed his ramen, "What do you plan on doing with me after this meal?"

"I dunno really," he said, "You seem to be feeling better as compared to when you were at the tower, so I guess I might as well take you to where you shall be staying."

"Where would that be? Some prison?" she asked, hoping that it was for some reason, she was weirded out already by her treatment in Konoha.

"Well no," he said, "Why'd we do that? Anyway, you'll be staying either in Cell Block K or in T and I, I'll have to ask my superiors when we swing by the Tower later."

"So...all of your being nice to me and my comrade really was all an act," she said, slightly relieved and slightly hurt for some reason.

"Act? What are you talking about?" Takeshi said, she refused to give him an answer, "Girls are weird," he said and enjoyed the rest of the meal.

She thought that the way she expected to be treated was about to happen, she was sorely disappointed when after passing by the tower, she was led to the Hotel District of the village, and led to a rather expensive looking place. Had she been on a mission to the village she wouldn't have been able to pay for even an hour in the place. But there she was being treated by the village to a room there, one which she shared with her comrade who looked to have gone through a lot of torture. Was it pleasure and pain, or just mental torture, she didn't know.

"How..." she said as she approached her comrade who was curled up on one of the extremely comfortable beds in the room, there were two bedrooms in the suite it seemed, "How...are you alright? They didn't do anything to hurt you did they?"

"I wish..." he replied, "I want to go home...I miss kumo...I miss normal...this is insane...they're supposed to torture us...try and break us through torture or something...pit us against each other...not...not...not pamper us...we're treated like royalty, like celebrities, not like enemies...I heard some of the jounins and chunins talk about how they wanted to treat all of kumo the way they were treating us...I was going mad inside..."

"I admit it does seem like a different kind of torture, the not knowing what will happen next...will we wake up in some dungeon later...do you know the name of the Hotel we're staying at?" she asked him.

"Yeah...T and I," he replied calming down a bit, "I thought I was being taken to the Torture and Interogation facility or something, only to find myself brought here..."

"I know..its..hard...but we'll have to outlast this...we've got to return to Kumo," she said trying to reassure him, "We'll get through this...I heard that they'll be keeping us here for a week before we get transferred."

"We'll get transferred?" he asked her, "You mean like prison transfer? Or maybe excecution...oh what I'd give for something normal to happen here."

"I'm not really sure," she said, the man was older than her, more experience in their trade, but he was breaking with all the kindness they were being shown in Kirigakure, they didn't know how much longer until they went insane from it all.

The rest of the week went by much the same as the first day, the village was extra nice to the two kumo-nin, and yes it was a form of torture, it was very much a form of mental torture, the only physical torture they suffered through was all the moving around that they were forced to do. Though the Mizukage did allow the jinchuuriki to spend some time in her Anbu Commander's company. That was the only reprieve that the girl received.

She didn't really get much inforamtion from him, but he was easy to get along with for the most part. He didn't hate Kumo as much as she thought he must or should, he simply stated that it was all in the past. He didn't know how the rest of the village viewed their relationship with Kiri, but he didn't really care. He kept to the excuse of them being guests which was why he acted so nice most of the time.

"Can't you...I don't know...act normal? I'm in enemy territory and I'm being treated like a princess," Yugito said on the last day of her stay in the village, she had a feeling that the village were having a big laugh at how she and her comrade were coping with their treatment. Her male companion had already broken down in their suite several times, the more he went down the road of insanity, the more he was pampered and treated like an emperor.

"Define normal," Takeshi said as he walked around the village with her, they were near the pearl farm at the moment.

"What normally happens when a shinobi gets captured by their enemy?" she said.

"I dunno," he said, "I've never been caught before, though fighting the Yondaime Hokage sure was fun, almost died, but it was fun."

"Y-you fought the Yondaime Hokage and are still alive? How'd you managed to do that? You've got to be kidding me, you don't even look old enough to have done that!" she said, "You've to be lying."

"I'd show you my mission records if it would please you," he said, "I rarely lie, this time is not one of those rare times. It was fun, so why would I lie anyway."

"You have a death wish then," she said, "You know, I could give you a real workout if you remove the chakra suppression seals."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," he said, "We haven't applied such seals on you."

"Liar," she said, "Then how do you explain why I can't use my chakra."

"Oh, that's simple," he said, "The Nibi's probably scared of the consequences of it popping up in a village where its kind of boss frequently visits."

"Kind of boss?" she asked confused.

"The Nekomata is supposedly the pet of the Shinigami," Takeshi said, "Or so the stories say anyway. Its either that or you think that by accessing your chakra you'll hurt yourself," he shrugged as they continued walking.

"So..if I were to say...call upon my own chakra now...you won't attack me?" she half asked.

"Unless you attack me, I won't do anything," he said, "Though I will do my best to keep you from leaving the village since you still need to visit the capital."

"Why do I have to do that?" she asked.

"I dunno what goes on in the head of the daimyo," he said, "Not even his wife knows what he's thinking most of the time."

"You seem to know so much about the daimyo and his wife," she teased him a bit, not really knowing why she did it, why she felt so comfortable around the rather odd jounin, "Why is that?"

"You have no idea," he said, "I guess you'll find out when you get to the capital. I'm being sent there too anyway, a vacation or at least that's what kaa-san calls it."

"Why in the capital? I mean don't you live here in Kiri?" she asked him.

"Well...most of the time yeah," he said, "Kaa-san lives in Krir, tou-san lives in the capital, and my brother..well.. truth be told actually lives in Konoha."

"You're brother lives in Konoha! But aren't relations between Kiri and Konoha more or less the same as relations with Kumo?" she asked, a bit scandalised by it, it was another not normal thing to learn.

"Yeah, I know," he said, "But tou-san doesn't believe in holding a grudge either, or hating just for hating's sake. Our rep is just made up really, its there to protect us from other countries. Make everyone think we're all demons so that they won't bother us until we want to be bothered. That's the kiri way, or at least that's how its been since the Yondaime Mizukage." Haha, I still can't believe its been so effective."

"Is that why you guys have been so nice to us?" she asked, they were nearing the main gate of the village.

"I dunno," he replied, "I really don't know. Hehe. Stop worrying about it. You really should just be enjoying all the pampering that's being showered on you."

"Why?" she asked, "So that when its revealed that it was all a ploy to make us relax our guards, that your revenge against all of Kaminari's attacks on Mizu will be all the more sweeter? No thank you."

She was in a bad mood all of a sudden, Takeshi was internally berating himself for his words, he had actually forgot the sitatuation she was in. He had grown far too comfortable in her presence, they were almost friends due to all the time they spent together, even though he was only supposed to be her guide and caretaker while she stayed in the village. He didn't even know why he was being sent to the capital, his mother wouldn't say anything to him, his father wasn't around to be questioned and every time mental communication was tried, the man was in some sort of meeting, which was a good excuse.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said, "I'm sorry."

"Well, that's not going to make me feel better," she said, "So let's just get this over with."

"Get what over with?" he asked.

"You want something from me, personally don't you," she said, "Well, what are you waiting for, there's got to be a reason some jounin would be so nice to me, the prisoner. Well?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, "Geez, you know what, I'll just take you to the gate, your ride should be waiting there, maybe you need to see how your friend is doing, cause I'm starting to think that I need to get some training in."

"What's that supposed to mean," she said, "You need to release some steam? So its all been an act huh, get me comfortable with you, then you go an beat me up."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Takeshi said, "Nevermind, there's no reasoning with a girl like you. So let's just go."

He dropped her off at the gate where the group that would be taking her and her comrade to the capital were waiting. The coach that she was to be riding was fit for a Kage, an in a way for her since she was related to one. She felt kind of hurt by how she had parted with the odd jounin. She regretted blowing up at him like she did, but all the fear and confusion had really been eating her up on the inside, but at least she was faring a whole lot better than her comrade who had been slipping in and out of insanity after only three days. It was probably because he wasn't being treated the same way she was.

#

Naruto had somehow gotten lost.

The mission they were in was a simple one, escort the caravan of merchants to Suna, then escort them back to Konoha. Kakashi told him to fetch some firewood one night, and he had ended up waking up in the morning on the shore of a river. It was a rather surreal experience. He had a feeling that Kakashi had just tried to get rid of him.

Through Seigen and Haru, he eventually found out that Kakashi had reported him going MIA, it had caused some problems for the Hokage, but some words from Shiro had helped the old man. The Hoakge informed the council members that were complaining and calling for his head, that he, the Hokage, had given Naruto a second mission, classified information, something that they were not entitled to.

He told Naruto that he expected something from his getting lost on the way to Suna, the council would need some form of proof that he had really been sent on another mission separate from the escort mission.

He told the Hokage that he might as well do something, but promised to be back for the Chunin Exams, he needed to make Chunin after all. There was the bit about the rest of his family coming for a visit that also made him want to be back by that time.

He walked around for a bit, before creating an army of clones and sent them out to do some reconaissance. It took a good couple of hours before they started popping. The information he received wasn't good. He was in the middle of nowhere, and the nowhere didn't happen to be within the borders of Hi no Kuni as his clones couldn't find anything that said that he was in Hi no Kuni.

He created some clones to go hunting for him, while he himself climbed up the nearest tree to see for himself just how screwed he was. He hadn't moved from the riverbank that he had woken up on. What he found were forest and forest, then there were a number of mountains as well as far as the eye could see. He really was lost, and when he tried to get in contact with his great great grandfather, all he managed to get was static for some reason. He chakled it up to the old man being really busy, he was a daimyo after all. When he tried summoning he for some reason managed to fail. The summons just wouldn't come. He didn't know what had happened.

He had a bad feeling about things, his situation, and he had a feeling that his heritage really had woken up complete, just not in a good way. There were the haywire antics that it had done when it randomly activated. They were incidents that not even his great great grandfather could adequately explain to him. The only thing he had ever been told, constantly was that he needed something to seal away the power.

He wasn't really a master when it came to seals, he was still in training after all, and he really couldn't think of a way to get something that could seal away his power. He could try and shove it all into the cage that help his bijuu chakra, but he didn't know what such a combination could cause within him.

He feared that he had found himself trapped in either the future or the past, but then he recalled managing to speak with the Hokage. Word had been sent by the old man and Shiro to Mizu of his predicament, but no word had been returned to them, it was as if something was blocking any help from reaching Naruto.

Naruto wandered around for what seemed like a day or two, the clouds covered the sun for most of the day and night, and so he was unable to tell the time that way. He had to concentrate on getting himself home by the Chunin exams, which was what caused his other forms to actually call in sick. Multitasking was not advisable during such a time.

Since his other forms were such important people, it was chalked up to their simply needing rest, even Fuhen, the newest one, had called in sick. His ministers grew a little bit worried over him, but he told them it must have been from rushing home.

With his other personas resting, Naruto could concentrate on getting home, while at the same time figuring out how to control whatever the heck was going on with him and his world manipulating powers, since his bloodlines kind of worked that way.

He kept creating clones as he ran in the hopes that at least one of them found some form of civilization. They never really did. He blamed his bloodlines, for he also realized that there was a possibility that his soul could be time traveling to be connected to his other personas, and he could either be in the future or in the past.

It was a scary thought.

He didn't know what to do other than keep giong.

It was a full week after waking up wherever he was that a clone finally stumbled upon some form of civilization. There was village a little while away, but based on his clone's memories the people that lived there were not wearing clothes that he recognized.

'_I've time traveled like Shiro-jiji and Takeshi-jiji,_' was his mental conclusion.

It was the only thing that came to mind, not that he could possibly have landed in some land that was not a part of the Elemental Continent. He could be on a whole other continent for all he knew, which he didn't.


	59. Chapter 59

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter fifty-nine**_

He had his clones stealthily study the village people, once he was sure that he knew what the local clothes looked like he transfigured his clothes to match theirs. The language was understandable, so he chakled it up to his luck.

He walked into the village to get some information that his clones were unabl to gather. Most of the people treated him like an oddity, for who walked into a village in the middle of nowhere and asked where they were. No traveler just did that, so they believed that he must have been robbed and was still disoriented, or just plain crazy.

When asked where he was from he answered Konoha, but no one seemed to know where that was. So he decided to get himself more information about the place. He asked where he could get a local map of the area, or of wherever the heck he was. He also believed that he would be needing some supplies for the time it would take him to get home. Since he didn't have any money, he decided to use what he was sure wasn't affected by his malfunctioning bloodlines, his magic and chakra were in working order, for small things anyway.

He left the village as soon as he manged to get some supplies and a map, he didn't want anyone finding out that he had basically paid the shopkeepers with rocks that had been transfigured, he didn't want to be there if his magic failed him. He hoped that the people he fooled put their money in a bank or something as not to find out about his deception.

When at a campsite, his clones around him as well as in the trees to make sure that nothing could sneak up on him, he finally looked over the map that he had purchased. He found that he was on a whole other continent, that didn't say much when it came to how he had managed to land there, or when in time he was. It just told him where he was, which was the equivalent of Hi no Kuni on his own continent.

He didn't know enough about the continent to figure out a way to get home, he didn't even know where exactly or in what direction home was. Well, at least he still had his storage scroll, where he kept all his things, like the scrolls of things he had yet to master.

The only thing he didn't have was actual money, the money he had was too different from the curency used in this continent. He needed to get to a city, one where he could find more information about his situation as well as find a way to get back home. Boy did he have a story to tell his family and friends.

No longer in need of the intense focus and concentration, he got his other peronas back to normal. Haru would sneeze every now and then, as if he had just gotten back from a bout of the flu or something, while Seigen would go back to going on missions, while the others like Tenma and Fuhen returned to what they normally did everyday.

It was a good thing that the map had NSEW on it, else he wouldn't be able to locate the nearest city. The map provided the locations of such places, and the nearest one looked to be about a week away for a normal person. So he accessed his Seigen persona, just the bloodline part of that one so that he could move pretty fast.

His clones didn't need to catch up, they just needed to gather more inforamtion, he put enough juice in them to last a few days away from him. When he arrived that the city that he saw in the map, he found that it looked a bit different from what he was expecing. Sure Konoha and Kiri had huge walls surrounding it, but there was something defintely different about this one. He didn't know what exactly, but he had a feeling that the many designs carved into it were more than just for decoration.

Getting into the city was easy enough, while he didn't have any identification papers, that didn't mean that he awlked through the gate, he ran in at full speed. As soon as he was sure that no one was looking, he created a number of clones to go scouting around, each one of them using the special transformation technique that he had, where he used magic instead of chakra. He didn't think that anyone had seen him. But he was wrong.

Someone had been keeping watch of the city and anything out of the ordinary happening. There was a net of energy that covered the city in a web of lines that tracked any kind of external energy use. The one monitoring the web had located Naruto as he moved, and ever since he cloned himself, that person tracked him and the clones curious about what had been done.

The man was greatly interested in Naruto, the web was in place to keep track of people that could use their internal energies externally. It was also used to track the peace of the city, the man directed the police forces to where there were problems to the peace of the city. Though he did admit that there were some spots that the web could not penetrate, he didn't mind, he didn't create the thing.

The reason for tracking down those who could use their energies was due to the war that was almost breaching the borders of the kingdom. They needed all the skilled fighters that they could get, even the ones that were hiding their abilities. Want for a peaceful life his ass, one needed to fight for peace and not just live it while not defending it.

He zeroed in on Naruto's position when all the other dots on the web vanished one after the other, they had vanished around places where a spy would or could possibly gather a lot of information. He was right in tracking the dot that was Naruto, it was possible that he had just caught a spy.

Naruto didn't know it, but his inforamtion gathering had just gotten him in some deep shit. As he turned around after processing the memories he got from his clones he found himself face to sword point with a number of the steel kind. He knew he was screwed, these people knew what he looked like, which meant that if he made a run for it, he could be considered some kind of criminal.

"Uh...hehe," he said as he scratched the back of his head nervously, the men grabbed him, gagged him and tied him up. They then dragged him away while avoiding any crowds that might see him. The arrest was secret like that. He wasn't read any rights, he didn't expect to be read his right anyway. He was tossed into a room in an unnamed building, or at least he didn't know where he was. They checked his body for anything that could be used to identify his loyalties, or find any weapons he had on him. It was a good thing that he had hidden his storage scroll in a storage tattoo he had created on the fly on his person.

"Who sent you," a rather muscular man in chain mail demanded as he slammed Naruto against the nearest wall of the room they were both in, "Tell me now, and I might be persuaded to let you have a quick death when this is all over."

"Dude, a girl could do this better than you," Naruto taunted, he had been doing it for the past four hours, no matter how much they roughed him up, he just didn't break. Good cop, bad cop, didn't work either. Nothing seemed to work on him. The ones that were in charge of interogating him thought that he was pretty loyal to whoever it was that sent him. They hadn't even managed to get his name, much more anything else they wanted to know.

"What've they got on you for you to be this loyal to them!" the man that was presently literally breaking Naruto's body demanded in frustration, Naruto had dulled all pain by way of spell, it still registered as an internal energy being used externally, that is if anyone was monitoring his use of it. Most thought that one needed some kind of focusing device or at least some chant, or simply being in a relaxed state when starting out.

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!" Naruto said while forcing out some hysterical laughter, he was pretending to go insane, and something in his blood just had to kick in, which caused him to get into a laughing fit. His interogators thought that he had actually snapped.

"I think that's enough Torrent," a man in blue robes walked into the room, "He's had enough, I think you've driven him over the edge from the way he's laughing. To think that there would be someone on their side that would be this loyal."

"But...I still think I can get some inforamtion out of him commander," Torrent, the muscular man in chain mail, said.

"I think he's had enough," the blue robed man said, "Take him to his cell and if he calms down, call me I have a desire to speak to him."

#

In another time and in another place Ryoku read the message he had received from the Hokage. He now knew what had happened to Naruto, but chose not to comment on it. The kid had been neglecting getting himself a power seal, he had this coming. He needed to deal with it on his own. It was for his own good anyway, it would make him stronger for the tasks ahead.

Other forces were at work in the world, and Uchiha Madara was just one of them.

He hadn't informed anyone of his goal in this life, that being to get the Chosen One in tip top shape for the final confrontation. He knew that he couldn't tell anyone, he had to keep it all a secret until the war was finally won.

He wished his blood luck, for his incredible luck wouldn't be helping him in this case. Magic, Time, Chakra, Luck, Necromancy, Nature Manipulation, to name a few of the gifts the Chosen One possessed. They were all intermingling, and merging, becoming one, and without a power converter or seal to keep them regulated, they were acting up, and would only become stable once Naruto had either gotten himself something to tone those powers down, or mastered them sufficiently.

He believed in his descendant, and knew that the kid had a lot of growing up to do, and just hoped that the magical transformation that the kid was sure to have to use when he got back was strong enough to hide his age from prying eyes. After all, Naruto was a good hundred years in the past, in a whole other continent, time flowed differently between the different times. His stay in the past was sure to last him until the Chunin Exams.

The kid would grow with this, and hopefully not die trying, Naruto was rewriting history and for once doing it with his core and not time and magic and words alone. It was going to be interesting to read about, that was for sure.

#

Naruto stopped laughing once he was left alone in his cell, he put up an illusion that made it seem like he was still laughing like a madman. It was fun, fooling these people. But now he had the time to think over the information he had gathered.

There was a war in this land, they were the ones defending while another tried to invade and conquer. What he didn't get was why didn't they just have the shinobi do the fighting, but then he realized that there were none, not on this continent anyway. He was the only one.

But he also learned that there were individuals with powers, much like a shinobi's but more specialized, some of them fought in the army for the kingdom, while there were others that hid themselves not wanting to join in the fighting.

He was thought of as a spy, which in a way he was, he heard the man in blue robes, how he planned on speaking with him when his sanity returned, but with all the laughing the blue robed man might just put him out of his misery. He needed a plan, he needed to get out of the prison and back into the unknown world. He needed to escape, while he had his created powers at his beck and call, he still didn't know if his bloodlines were still going to go haywire on him. Time could suddenly stop, or he could be trapped in a constantly moving molecular state or something similar. His luck could go rock bottom for all he knew. He needed a plan, one that did not rely on his powers.

His illusionary laugh, laughed itself hoarse, and the laugh just continued on and on, well into the night, and into the next day, and into the coming darkness as well. It laughed and laughed and laughed, it grew more insane as time wore on, and not even the Head Interogator Torrent wanted to go near his walled off cell.

Chakra wasn't necessarily a bloodline trait, as everyone in his continent had it, and he believed that everyone in his world did as well, all thanks to his ancestor who had spread it around by way of the fish. He placed that on the list of things he could use, aside from his latent skills and training experience. His magic was out, as were some of the other things he would normally have at his disposal.

He still had his tools with him, his scrolls, his map, and some other stuff.

It was time to leave, he knew that the guards were getting rather suspicious of his never ending cackling. He was so sure that they were prepared to venture into his lair and see if he was still _alive_. He needed a way out, and just as he was about to think up a plan of action he heard some keys jingling, then just before the door to his cell swung open he jumped up to the ceiling and clung onto it for dear life, his things were stored in their proper seals faster than he thought he could pull off.

The guards that entered grew frantic when they didn't find him in the cell, they rushed out to alert their superiors of an escape. With the cell door still unlocked, open even, Naruto crawled his way out. The spider web of monitoring strands did not extend within the prison. He followed where he could sense the guards had run. He kept to the shadowed parts of the ceiling, the places that the torch light couldn't penetrate.

This continent wasn't as technologically advanced as his home continent it seemed.

He made his way upwards thinking that the prison must have been underground, it was, since by the time he reached the sunlight he found himself on the ground level. The outside of the prison could have been mistaken for an abandoned mine, with a minimal number of guards, they looked to be protecting people from potentially harming themselves rather than keep people from escaping.

Naruto used this to his advantage and henge'd into his teammate, Sasuke, and pretended to be a kid that had trespassed and tried to go exploring. The guards not only escorted him out of the prison, but also led him to a temporary detention center where he was told that someone would set him loose in a few hours. He was to reflect on his actions for the next few hours until his release.

As soon as the guard that had brought him there had left him alone in solitary confinement, he picked the lock from the inside using his amazing ninja skillz, and left the prison in the form of his batchmate Nara Shikamaru. When he managed to escape the dention facility, he shifted his form to that of another fellow genin, that of Akamichi Chouji. The plump form would make him stand out in some places, but no one would suspect such a rotound boy to be capable of escaping a prison.

He got what he wanted from the city, and thus decided that he'd stay one more night in the place before moving on toward the border, there could possibly be something there for him to do while he tried to figure out how he was going to go home.

He set himself up atop one of of the higher spired buildings in the city, a perch where he could keep watch over the city, watch out for danger to himself or others. It also would make it harder for guards to grab him again. He just needed to remember not to use any techniques that made him use chakra externally, or techniques that made the chakra used externally obvious to their tracking methods.

He didn't create a clone to keep watch, he simply made sure to remind himself to be a light sleeper throughout the night in order for him to subconsciously react when needed, like if he were attacked for some reason. He doubted that his former captors, the defenders of the city would be able to catch him unawares again, not after his getting to know how they felt, he did make sure he familiarized himself with the feel of the man in a blue robe's chakra signature, it was in a way channeled differently and faint to his senses, but it was still there now that he thought about it.

The night passed into day and nothing bad happened to Naruto now that he was making like one that hides in the shadows and was being more careful now that he was aware that his movements could be tracked. He left the city at first light and extended his senses outward to make sure that he was not being followed and that no one was around that could possibly find him as interesting.

He walked through the wilderness in search of the border, following the trails and roads that the map he had provided directons for him. He was now a young man on a mission, that mission being locating the border, his map was only detailed when it came to this one country, he needed more information, more than one city could hope to provide. He also needed to see if the war that was being fought was one worth fighting for, and whose side should he be on if he were ever actually forced to join in on the fighting.

He didn't meet anyone on the way, he didn't dare go near any of the caravans, he had a feeling that someone moving towards the border with all the fighting and without a platoon of men with him would look rather suspicious, he had already been viewed as an incredibly loyal spy, he didn't need for that notion to be reinforced by his seeming suspicious to a greater number of people.

The border was actually a mountain range with a single narrow pass where troops could pass safely through without having actually scour the mountain face which for some reason actually looked like a wall from beyond the kingdom's territory. It was only from within that the mountain looked relatively climbable which was how Naruto managed to find himself a cave along the smooth cliff face where he could view the narror pass with a few forts dotting it on the ground down below.

Enhancing his vision with chakra he managed to catch glimpses of the troops that were leaving the country to fight beyond the mountain range wall. Most of the soldiers looked professional, but it looked like some were mere conscripts, recruits from smaller cities, towns, and villages, smaller in size compared to the city he had been in and had gotten caught.

He also noticed the groups of bunched up people in a different uniform, some of which looked like some of the kind of weird people that Naruto had already encountered in his life. He surmised that those people were the ones that could actively access their chakra, some had collars from what he could discern while others were collar free.

He didn't like the look of the people, the ones in collars, while the other ones, the ones without looked rather giddy at the prospect of battle. Naruto didn't like those people, they didn't look or feel right. He could sense things like that even from so far away.

He kept watch for a few days gathering inforamtion using clones which he had created from afar, he figured that there was no way people could track his creation of clones if they were creted in the air. When he had created them in the city he was standing or crouching on the ground. But what if he was not touching anything at all. So he experimented and after a day of not being found, he created more.

He sent the clones, all of them in different forms, those forms belonging to the different shinobi that Naruto had encountered in his life save for his relatives, on reconaissance missions around the mountain range. They managed to avoid patrols, capture, and even caught, interrogated, and eliminated, real spies from the enemy of he kingdom he was currently in. He learned a lot from his clones' successes.

After a few days of gathering information on the lay of the land and everything going on below him, he sent out some clones to find out what beyond the mountain range wall looked like, what the climate over there was like, as well as the actual state of the war or invasion or whatever it should be called. Naruto was really unsure about that.

Since he was still unsure whether or not the use of his magic would go nuts, he stuck to chakra, but hoped that he could find out someway of getting his heritage under control, sealed or otherwise. He could use his bijuu chakra, he was sure of that, but he didn't really want to have to use that for his everyday tasks.

Without the ability to call upon Haru's abilities or Tenma's knowledge, Naruto had to make do with what scrolls he had on seals that he had with him. Luckily for him he had one that told him how to create a barrier to protect a place from being found. It was like a magical illusionary barrier but with chakra, blood, ink, and lots of writing without the possibility of aid with clones. He planned on locking away his little hideaway just in case he needed to retreat if he was finally found and forced to run for it.

The hole in the wall was his little hideaway, his headquarters, or so he decided, it was where he decided to leave his things, the ones he didn't want to lose in case he got into a fight and forgot to reseal something. He left as soon as he received the memories of his clones, he had sent out ten and five had poofed out and sent back what they had gathered.

He needed to see what was happening beyond the border for himself. It was a really big world according to the clones. The memories showed a sea of fighting and fire for miles around and the scent of blood in the air was far worse than the bloody mist was supposed to have been according to the stories and histories. He wanted to see it first hand, with his own two eyes, and not just his clones' eyes. He wanted to also know why was there such a need, for what he saw as needless, fighting.

He wasn't naïve, he knew about the horrors of the world, his great granduncle made sure that he knew about such things, including politics, as well as how to manipulate a situation. But he wasn't an expert at that last part yet.

He ran across the cliff face bypassing the forts that lined the narrow pass beneath him, or the patrols above his trail. He knew he reached the true border when the smell of rotting flesh, blood and gore, shouting, and the smell of fires lit, reached his senses. He also happened to be standing at the cornered edge of the wall, there was even a fortress above him with an actual humanly created wall joined to it.

He spotted a pair of his clones standing several feet below him, they were waiting for orders since he was there with them. He signed to them to lead him to the remaining other three. The sped off down the cliff face with him following them at the same speed as they were moving.

The battlefield was like an intricate maze of ruined structures, it seemed that the war had been going on for a long time, the supposed invasion was just all manner of factions battling it out for territorial claims. There were unused forts, new forts, old forts, and a whole host of other unused structures. The three other clones had holed themselves up in an abandoned fort that was filled with the rotting corpses of conscripts that must have been left behind as some sort of meat shield for the more experienced, and obviously important, soldiers. He didn't like the fact that some people were left behind due to their inexperience and nil value.

He couldn't see what the leaders of the armies that were duking it out on the battlefield were thinking, why not simply get together over some tea, bring a pair of contingency guards, and talk it out. There was surely some way of agreeing to a compromise so that lives need no longer be lost.

He ordered his clones to keep watch, he didn't have the resources needed to correctly and efficiently seal up the fortress. He only had what he needed, which were some knives, and his chakra, there was a medkit too, but he didn't really need that. Five clones kept watch, going off in pairs, the solo one keeping close to Naruto as he thought of what his potential next move could be.

His clones had transformed from the forms of the shinobi he knew, back to his form but covering their faces from view and chosing to actually wear the clothes of the most likely recently decesed. They just remembered to remove any distinguishing patches or marks that would make any that could find them decipher what or whose side they were on, or suppose who they worked for.

Time sped up around him as he was left to his thoughts. Two of the clones took to the roof of the only still solid and complete structure of the fort. They took all the arrows they could find lying around, both used and unused. They took whatever long and short bows they could find as well. They were to be the snipers against any that would wish harm upon their master. The other two clones took whatever other pointy weapons they could find and piled them up for melee fighting or just for throwing.

The solo clone was used as a second to the last defence as well as a sounding board for Naruto's ideas.

Naruto himself was lost in his own world, analyzing his situation as well as the likelihood that all the other countries in the continent would react similarly to the one that he had landed in. He was trapped on a contient he knew next to nothing about, and in a time that he was unsure of when it was and how close to his own it was.

He already didn't like the war going on beyond the semi-shattered wall of the fort, he wanted to put a stop to it, either by diplomacy or by fighting himself. But he had several problems, one of them was who to try and reason with first, another was how the heck was he to know who the right person to talk to was. There was also the fact that he didn't know what the political situations were in all the involved countries, he knew too little during a time that he needed to know a lot.

He realized after a while that he really to do a lot more research, and so created a number of more clones. He was a one man army unto himself as it was, but while he could try his hand at a full scale battle, he didn't think it was a good idea. He theorized that he had been shoved into wherever or whenever he was for some unknown to him reason. There was some purpose to the madness of his coming to this neck in the woods. IT was only when he finally realized that, as well as was sending four-clone squads to scour the battlefield and surrounding participating and non-participating countries in the all out brawl between kingdoms did he get a clue about what was really happening around him.

"I really was expecting him to do something like this," an unknown voice said from a shadowy corner in the room that Naruto was now referring to as his new hideout. He was eating the last of his cup ramen, that had somehow survived the trip through time and all the crap that he had put himself through. Hunting was cool, eating whatever rations and whatnot around was good too, but ramen was just something unexplainable.

"Who said that?" Naruto demanded as his chopsticks were suddenly held like senbon needles, and clones burst around him all appearing in stances for battle.

"I did," the owner of the voice said as he stepped out of the shadowy corner, the man didn't look remotely like anyone that Naruto had ever actually encountered, it was probably due to the man having a hood shadowing his face, "It was quite interesting how your insane ancestor managed to bend so many rules as well as complicate things. Such a meddler he has been."

"Who are you, and what are you talking about?" Naruto demanded, all eyes were trained on the man.

"You don't need to know who I am," the man stated, "But I do have some knowledge that I decided needed to be shared with one such as yourself, one with such a colorful heritage."

"How did you manage to get in here..?" Naruto asked, beginning to panic a bit, he was sure that he was safe, what with all the clones protecting him.

"By the same way that Ryoku gets around, though a bit more sophisticated as compared to his method," the man said, "You don't need to know the exact details, let's just say that I know of your great great grandfather Tokou Jikoku Ryoku. I also know about your present predicament, you clearly need help, so here I am to help you. That is if you are willing to listen to what I have to say."

Naruto thought about it for a bit, then decided that he didn't have anything to lose. If the man could just sneak up on him, and if he was there to kill or kidnap him the man would have already done so. With his inner turmoil vanquished, Naruto offered the man a chair and sat down himself on some transformed clones.

"I'm willing to listen," Naruto stated, "I have nothing better to do, what with the circumstances."

"Good, good," the man said, then began his psuedo lecture, "I already stated that my name was unimportant. As for my information...hmm...well, to tell you the truth your heritage is undergoing its release, it still is being released, it is still awakening. Ryoku doesn't really know everything about you and this mutated mix of so much history and myth. I on the other hand know quite a bit more than he does."

"Then are you going to share this information with me? Or is there some condition?" Naruto asked.

"There is of course a condition," the man calmly replied, "I want you to stop this war. The senseless spilling of blood and loss of life has been giving another friend of mine a very stressful millennia. Yes, you are partially correct in your mentally formed assumption, partially."

"Oh," Naruto said, as he had been thinking about the Shinigami, but to be partially correct meant that it was something far greater than one measly kami, "Please continue," he noticed that his minor interruption had halted the man from continuing speaking, "And I agree to the condition."

"Thank you," the man said, then cotninued his information sharing, "Now then, where was I...ahh...yes...that's where I was," the man had fallen into acting like a senile old man, but then morphed back into the mysterious stranger that he was supposed to be, "Your time manipulation heritage is out of your hands, that is not to say that you may never use it again for it is actually or has actually been constantly in use. You are in the past, treat is like creating a new persona, but this time with you personally living out the life and not simply leaving things up to your heritage to automatically generate. That is the maturation of your time manipulation."

"Oh," Naruto once again said, knowing that one of his powers was no longer within his reach, "Sorry for the interuption."

"Accepted," the man said, "You're great great grandmother's Kekkai Genkai are yours for the using, you just have to figure out how, it seems that your relatives have actually forgotten about them. I'm not telling you how to access that special route to power. Now there is also your other heritages to think about, the blood that flows within you is an amalgamation of quite a number of famous historical people of your world, Ryoku included. The blood of the Yondaime Hokage flows through you, but he has almost the same abilities as you. Your mother the former last of the great Uzumaki people. The powers granted to you by the blood of the firsts are all slowly awakening, time and magic from Ryoku, they you have used most, but not to the extent that he uses them, especially the magic part."

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked, he didn't fully understand what the man meant after all.

"Magic is something that shouldn't have to follow the normal rules of reality, it is a reality bending force," the man explained, "You can literally do absolutely anything you want to with magic, there is no limit to the magic save for the limits you place on yourself, as well as your will and your belief in these never ending possibilities."

"I see," Naruto said, "So, if say, I was to want to summon my great great grandfather here, I could do it with my magic?"

"Sure," the man said, "But you would have to take into account that your great great grandfather also has magic as well as his own will and his own beliefs. If he chose not to go where your magic wanted to take him, he would fight your magic with his own. But if say, you wanted to conjure a field of flowers from all the dead bodies laying about you could, but then you'd have to think of a way to explain how such a thing had happened. Suffice to say you can do anything you want so long as you take in consideration a lot of things."

"I think my feeble mind gets what you're trying to tell me," Naruto said.

"Good," the man said, "In the shinobi world there are four founding fathers, or two fathers and two mothers. You are a descendant of all four of them. From the Taijutsu no Tatsujin your powers are maturing already, from the Uzumaki Sennin, or First Sage, your powers will need training though you don't have to worry about it just yet. From Gensou Shishou...well, illusions can't fool you for one, but when it come to using them you'll have to use magic for that. From Seigi Musei, while not a First or Founding Father, you get enhanced reflexes and an increase in attention to detail with a hint of contortionistic ability, you also get to actually weild that clan's swords...though only if the current clan head lets you. From Kagemusha you actually get two things, and one thing which is a combination of Kagemusha and Ryoku."

"Why'd you stop?" Naruto asked, he then noticed that the man had produced a bottle of mineral water and was quenching what thirst had overcome him as he was sharing information, "Sorry."

"S'alright," the man said after throwing te bottle into a portal to the middle of nowhere then closing it, "From Kagemusha, as unbelievable as it sounds you get something that would cause an uproar in your home village, the Curse of the Juubi, an eye of madness or potential to cause it, the second thing solely from him is well...nevermind, you'll find that out on your own. From the future, since we're in the past of your present, Mizu Daimyo and Kagemusha you get nature manipulation, though not to the extent as Ryoku, Kagemusha only gained it after completing his Sennin training. Any questions?"

"Just one," Naruto said, "How do I do that seal thingy Ryoku-jiji was talking about?"

"Oh, that's rather easy," the man said, "You'll have to locate a man by the name of Rosuto Juushu, he'll be able to help you, though he's only here for some R&R and who knows when he'll need to leave. You'll need to find him on your own, I'm not about to go searching for the him. Any others?"

"Alright, fine," Naruto said deciding that he might as well ask his questions instead of keeping them to himself, "How do I get home?"

"That's actually the question I was waiting for," the man said, "You get to go home as soon as you've ended the fighting here and mastered the awakened parts of your heritage save for the time manipulation that thing's easy and is tied in with the magic bit. So...good luck O Kinjutsu user, time for me to leave."

The man walked on over back to his shadowy corner.

"Wait! But I've got more questions!" Naruto said as he got up from his seat.

"You said you had one, not a lot," the man said, "Next time answer more honestly."

With that the man walked into the shadow, and the last thing that Naruto saw of the man were his ghostly golden and glowing eyes, there was an eerie quality to them that the young shinobi couldn't place.

Since he couldn't follow the man into the shadows to wherever he had gone, and since he did't know where the man had come from or gone, Naruto decided to simply begin doing as the man had said. He began training while he left some clones in his room to think of things to do to stop the continental war that was going on around him.

He used the clone training method, creating groups of clones to take on different tasks and dispelling when they were done or had reached a new level of competence in their assigned task.

His training and occupation of the fort had not gone unnoticed by the other people that actually lived on the battlefield, field commanders, soldiers, and civilians that didn't belong to any kingdom, as well as some nomadic clans and tribes, had all noticed his occupation and refusal to actually leave. The only reason why none had dared come close or storm the place was due to the eagle eyes that were constantly keeping watch of those that tried to approach. Naruto's clones' persistent presence on contstant patrol proved to be a deterant to anyone curious enough about the new player in the game.

Naruto didn't know it, but the sides of the war considered him a new player due to his clones' uniforms, as well as his hostility towards all factions and sides in the territorial and reasonless war.

There were those few that hoped or wished that he, Naruto, would be some form of relief from the fighting, a side that wished to stop the pointlessness of it all. These were the people that had actually grown tired of the millenniums worth of fighting, like those collared people that could externally use their chakra.


	60. Chapter 60

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter sixty**_

Torrent was a man that couldn't believe his eyes at the sight that was just out of his reach, he saw the sight through a telescope. What he couldn't believe was that that one young man that he had tried to get information out of and had thought to be spy was right there on the battlefield occupying a fort that Torrent's side had abadoned before they could be overwhelmed.

Torrent had been sent to the front lines due to his failure to keep and track down an escapee, it was the first time that he had failed in his career, and it was his last since he had been ordered by his superiors to serve on the front lines, and whenever someone was assigned to the front lines they were usually supposed to die there the first chance they got. He no longer liked the lot he had in life, this one where one failure meant that his existence no longer mattered, that he was no longer a productive member of society worthy of being viewed as somethnig more than a pawn on a chessboard, or a meatshield for those that now had more value.

He was ordered to take his platoon with him and storm one of their abandoned forts and wipe out whoever was in it. Torrent didn't mind that order up until he found his elusive former prey. He no longer cared that the young man was there, with a bunch of soldiers of his own. What he cared about was living, since the young man obviously had more than skill. It had been more than a year since the young man had been a temporary guest at his former place of work.

Naruto had spent that year training, honing his skills, gathering information on the countries of the continent, as well as preparing to set out and get some actual people working with him. He knew that no man was an island, that the change that he wanted to occur needed a slew of people and not just himself. He needed comrades and allies, and he also grew slightly bored lording over himself, since all his clones were simply himself. He also sent some clones out to discover the location of the man named Rosuto Juushu, but failed every time to locate him.

He spotted the platoon that had been headed his way, and so marshalled his clones in preparation for battle, in case battle was the only course of action available to him. And instead of meeting with battle Naruto was met with a white flag, a rare sight in the field of battle, especially one such as this one. So he sent out a single clone out to meet with the leader of the platoon.

"Your leader is smart," Torrent told the clone, the clone merely nodding, "I come in peace, as farfetched as that actually sounds. I have recently realized why all this fighting is useless, and what I had been fighting for all along had been naught but a lie."

The clone nodded in understanding.

"I would like to request an audience with your leader," Torrent told the clone.

The clone nodded then motioned for the man to follow him back to the fortress, Naruto moved out of view and conjured a table and two chairs in the middle of the outeryard of the fortress, his clones forming double layered rows along the walls, one pointing their bows outward while the other pointing inwards.

Torrent walked through the repaired gates, and marveled at the state of the structure's interior, it was not as the intelligence reports claimed the state as being. Everything was in tip top shape save for the exterior, appearances really can be deceiving. He was led by the clone to where Naruto was waiting for him.

"I would apologize for my former treatment of you, but I was doing my job at the time," Torrent said.

"I would have thought less of you if you had," Naruto said, "I am Uzumaki Naruto a pleasure to have you in my fortress."

"I am Torrent Shalrain," Torrent introduced himself, "I have come to ask if you would allow my men and myself to join your side in this inter-kingdom bloodbath. I had been fighting for a lie all my life, and only realized the truth when I was discharged from duty and sent out here."

"Well, you are sincere in your request, I can tell that much," Naruto said, "Alright, so why don't you have a seat while I send one of my _men_ out to fetch your soldiers, they'll be safer within the walls of the fortress than beyond the walls of it."

"Thank you, though aren't you worried that my acting skills may be better than your ability to read people?" Torrent asked as he took a seat and was offered some tea of all things, he never really did get why nobles drank tea, it was really rather relaxing stuff, better than booze.

"You lack the necessary skill set to take me down," Naruto said, it wasn't really bragging if it was true, "I've trained myself some during the past year since last I saw you."

"I'll take your word for it," Torrent said as he sipped more and more of the tea, it was a bit addictive and he wasn't sure whether or not it was because of something Naruto put in it or due to the stress he had been feeling during his journey to the fortress. He eventually drifted off to sleep and failed to notice the arrival of his subordinates who looked on in fear as he appeared dead to their eyes.

"No need to fear, he's just resting," Naruto told them, "My _men_ will show you to your quarters."

He motioned for some of the clones to lead the men, all of them followed not trying to fight the sudden change in arrangements, some watched as their leader was carted off somewhere in the fortress. They thought that they were being taken to the dungeons, but were surprised when they were brought to the barracks, some of the beds were being occupied. Naruto didn't want to resort to this lying to the men, hiding the identities of his clones, all of them in a different form.

He slept on the roof of the fortress, the highest point. He had a lot to think about, a lot more now that he actually had some actual people under him now. There would come a time when he would have to make some life or dead decisions. If this was what being a leader was like, he would embrace it and not look back. He had goals in his life, he knew from a weird perspective what it was like, but these were different times.

The next day he found Torrent walking groggily after some clones that were headed for the mess hall for breakfast, while the clones didn't really need to eat, Naruto needed them to keep up appearances. He sent out some teams of clones to go hunting for food in the battlefield, he did it before since he needed to eat. There was some wildlife in the battlefield, mostly predators and scavengers, but they were good enough to make food out of.

Naruto also managed to get the nature manipulation down, he could grow plants, and thus grew the green food that he needed. He had been steadily and slowly growing the vegetation around the fortress to add some needed cover and camoflauge. It also had the added effect of making some battle commanders think that they had the wrong intelligence and maps.

"How did you sleep?" Naruto asked Torrent as he sat beside the man along a table, he had a tray loaded with what he thought he would need for the morning.

"Well, for a moment there I thought you poisoned me," Torrent said.

"We're allies now," Naruto said, "I wouldn't do that."

"I know that now," Torrent said, "But what I can't understand is how you can be so trusting."

"I have my ways of discerning the honesty and sincerity of people," Naruto stated, "How's the gruel?"

"Better than the rations I had," Torrent said, and thus the two resumed their meal.

They ate in peacefilled silence, and continued eating even as their respective subordinates rowdily entered the mess hall fooling and joking around as if they had known and worked with each other for years.

#

Several weeks later another platoon of soldiers arrived just outside of what now looked like a proper forest, there were several smaller outposts up in the trees and were manned by a mixture of clone and men, the leader of the new platoon was from a different country from Torrent's, and they too wanted a way out of the war, a way to stop it.

Every few weeks another platoon arrived with orders to take the fortress, none ever succeeded in taking it for themselves, instead they were either talked into joining Naruto's growing army or actually requested the change in sides. These were men that had grown dissatisfied with how their countries were secretly run by the nobles and most of the royals whose lust for land and power was causing many of their citizens to be turned into soldiers, rushed off to battle and never to return.

These men were choosing to walk down a path of their own choosing, knowing that by doing this they had a greater chance of actually returning to their loved ones alive and well.

Naruto took to leading like a fish took to water, it was likely due to his heritage, one filled with leaders from all walks of life. He also had experience from the three clan heads that he was and the one daimyo. But this was more personal an experience, this was real, this was not a mere fabrication brought to reality. This was his core self, his base form, undergoing all the experiences that he was undergoing. He drew from the experiences of his other forms, those that moved about by instinct and intrinsic knowledge blessed to them by their mere creation.

The fortress was expanded a little bit by each and every additional platoon that joined up. The forest also grew, and eventually the fortress joined the forest. Before long, or after around five years time, the fortress actually morphed into a city, a small one, but a city nonetheless.

There were no families in the place, there were few women since women were not seen as supposed to be on the battlefield by the people of this continent unlike Elemental. Naruto was their leader, the general as they couldn't be called a kingdom. He sent out emissaries to seek out more that were willing to join his cause, whch was to stop the war. He had rough plan, but before he could actually enact it he needed an army to back him up, and not just the clones that could use the devastating techniques he had learned and mastered over the years.

His direct subordinates, the officers of his army were let in one the secret of the clones, the men didn't need to know that some of their comrades were not real, in the sense of being alive. To lessen the number of false operatives, Naruto sent them out on missions along with their live comrades. While on the missions the clones would make sure that they could volunteer to stay and stall the enemy, the missions ususally involved spying.

Those missions sure thinned out the number of active clones Naruto had laying around. It also boosted the feelings of some of his men, their thoughts of becoming better, improving, in order for the loss of life was a good thing, and even his officers agreed with him in that regard.

They worked mostly in the shadows, they were spies and assassins. They worked for a better world, but until that one big break was found, they would continue to work as they did. They dared not do the world they knew a great diservice by vanishing due to a fatal error in judgement, they still lacked the men required to even take on one kingdom.

That was until a team of clones that had infiltrated one of the kingdoms found a royal sympathetic to their cause, one that wished for the fighting to end and the senseless loss of life to cease. The thing was that it just so happened to have to be a princess. Women in any form in this continent weren't viewed as anything more than pawns or tools for their families to use. But this princess just so happened to be the only child of the King of the Kingdom of Cloudroot, which was the rival nation to the one Torrent was from which was incidentally called Elemental.

He found their sympathetic to the cause royal, all they needed to do to move into a more active role in the inter-kingdom war was to get her to get her country to either pull out of the warzone or support them in stopping the war. Which was very different from finding her in the first place.

Things got a whole lot worse when the king of Cloudroot was assassinated and instead of the princess ascending, it was her closest cousin, she was relegated to simply being there, a figurehead, a symbol, a lie to the people. The cousin was a warmonger, he loved the war, and he was greedy. He cared not for the people, only that he could lead the kingdom to greater heights.

"We found our in," Naruto informed his officers as they gathered in the War Room, "Unfortunately as many of you know Cloudroot has undergone a change in leadership, and she, yes I said she, is in an even lesser position to help us."

"How can she help us anyway?" Torrent asked, he had risen to become Naruto's right hand, "What can she do?"

"As many of you know, Cloudroot is making use of her as an example as to why the war must continue," Naruto informed them, "The nobility is using her as a means to show people that even the monarchy isn't safe, and if the princess can be so affected, then what more the families of the people. The recruitment of the Cloudroot army is going double time. More or more of the men are marching off to battle. Such an increase in personnel has caused other nations to follow suit. I fear that the level of loss of life and broken families will rise to a whole other level soon."

"Then how are we to proceed?" Firedust, another of the officers asked, "This inforamtion may be helpful, but how are we to proceed?"

"The most direct root would be to do something very radical," Sparktone, yet another officer, said, "We give her her own voice, have her speak to the people. There are more commoners than there are nobility, rally the common people to our cause. We could have her twist their perceptions for us, shape their views on the war. Make them realize that the longer the war progresses the more lives will be lost. Only the nobility and high ranking military officials actually are benefitting from the war."

"But if Cloudroot manages to pull out, they would be looked up as cowards by the other nations, and the war would focus on eliminating them permanently," Torrent said, "While I may have despised Cloudroot in the past, I cannot in good conscience allow such senseless killing occur."

"There must be a way for that suggestion to work, while at the same time still protecting the people," Stormborn, another officer, said, "How about we just convince her to actually begin to speak her mind, then when she is locked up or something like that we have our men spread the word that she has been imprisoned for telling the truth and for loving her people."

"Let's just go with that," Naruto said coming to a decision, "I'll have the infiltrators contact her about this plan, while you lot assemble a force that is willing to go into Cloudroot and prepare for our diplomatic takeover. As for defending Cloudroot from all its enemies...I've got a project that once completed will help...I just need to complete it."

"You're not experimenting with the men are you," Torrent asked, "Not that I'm questioning your sanity, cause this is the first time I've heard of this project of yours."

"The men aren't involved, only my _men_ are involved," Naruto said, "I'm trying my hand at automatons."

"Automatons?" Firedust asked.

"Yes, automatons, golems if you will," Naruto said, "If I can get even one up and running we won't need to have to put a bulk of our men on the front lines for anything, though I highly doubt I could get that many up and running."

"Need any help with your work?" the officers offered themselves, such things would be a great help in battle as well as would save a lot more lives.

"No, no," Naruto said, "I can't risk you helping me with this endeavor, its a very intricate process and you need a certain skill set to even leave the testing grounds alive."

"I see," Torrent said, then dismissed the idea of helping his boss, "Well, then what do we do in the mean time, you know, while we assemble the troops?"

"We go about continuing our training and surveillance of the surrounding armies," Naruto said, "That's all we can do for the time being, but make sure that your men know that we're moving up with The Plan."

#

The clones in the castle of Cloudroot appeared like the shinobi that they were before the princess they required the help of. She was not as startled by they sudden appearance having gotten used to them since she had asked them to run some errands for her. She was doing her part to keep her people relatively happy, going so far as to funnel some funds from the royal treasury to aiding some families to go into hiding, specifically the ones that opposed the war and were on the list of people who were meant to permanently disappear.

There were only three of them now, they started out as a cell of four, one of them had played distraction to let the others with the families they were sending into hiding escape. The people of Cloudroot were now aware that there was someone working in the shadows hoping to put a stop to the senseless bloodshed, they just didn't know who.

"We have received new orders from HQ," one of the clones reported to her, "It is time for you to step up yourr highness, the people need to hear your voice, they need to hear the truth about the nobility, the truth about the war, and if you know, why all this fighting started."

"Has there ever been a real reason?" she asked herself, the clones didn't really mind and didn't comment on her self questioning, she then addressed them, "How am I to do that?"

"We would suggest starting small, you need to reach a large audience for the strategy that HQ has planned to be effective," the clone said, "Complain to a servant, a maid, or even just one of the lowly guards. They'll spread the word like gossip for you. People will of course have to be sacrificed, but that's the price for peace. When the killings start, or more like the erasing of existences you slip up in public one of those occasions where you're supposed to smile and look pretty, a minor comment should do it."

"What happens after that?" she asked them.

"You'll most likely get locked away," the clone replied, "That will be when the rest of our group will make their move. We will strike fast and let it be known that your cousin will stop at nothing to keep the truth from the people. We're hoping for a civil war. HQ will then send in some more people to aid you, the people are sure to want to place someone that is clearly looking out for their well being on the throne."

"Your master must have really thought this through," she said, "But how will my kingdom be defended without its army out fighting on the warzone?"

"HQ is working on it," the clone said, "Don't worry about that your highness, just focus on getting the people on your side. We're also hoping that if this succeeds, rather when this succeeds, the other nations' peoples will also realize the foolishness of this lustful game of power."

"We're hoping to get the peace ball rolling, starting with your highness," another clone added.

"I see," she said, "Very well. But could you please try to keep the casualties to a minimum?"

"We shall do our very best," the clones said before vanishing, teleporting out of the room.

A few minutes later a maid silently entered her quarters and overheard the princess complaining about the state of the nation, as well as the war. Servants of the nobility weren't all that affected by the war, their families were taken care of, unless they made a mistake, but some of the things she heard the princess groan and moan about were just too juicy to keep to herself. She shared it later that day with the other servants, who shared some gossip of their own, and they spread the word to their families, who shared such gossip with their friends. The ball really got rolling after that one servant overheard the princess talking to herself.

Soon more and more of her words reached more and more ears, while a majority thought of it as just useless gossip there were those that were gladdened that there was someone in the higher tiers of society that was getting fed up with the way things have been. There were those that noticed signs of displeasure briefly appear on the princess' face when she was out in public and the war was being talked about, how it was supposedly needed, and other such nonesense.

Naruto's infiltrators spread rumors of their own, adding fuel to the fire, but not enough to make people want to act on their own or turn traitor to their country. Just giving them the gist of what was potentially the truth.

Families were whisked away and clones took their place when the squads of soldiers came to rid the world of those that stood out when it came to halting the war effort. Sacrifices were made, and clones were lost.

People eventually wanted the fighting to end, especially when they started using their heads. There were different kinds and routes to power after all, and a lot of them had nothing to do with bloodshed.

The day finally arrived when the princess was to reveal some of the truths that the nobility strived to keep under wraps, they never would have thought that she would be capable of doing anything that they did not want her to do. She was a woman after all, and had no way to defend herself against them if they ever wanted to do away with her.

She spoke her mind after being given the floor to speak, the gathered crowed were entranced by her beauty and since they were so used to listening and internalizing what the nobles had to say, they listened to all she had to say. The silence was golden in that the nobles didn't really pay attention until one of them realized that she wasn't doing as they had ordered her to do. They moved to stop her, but someone decided that since she had said far too much, she risked the plan not happening the way it should, she was to have her first experience at attempted assassination.

One of Naruto's clones had switched with one of the royal guards, and acted in such a manner that it would be believed that the nobles had ordered him to silence her before anymore hidden truth from the past centuries could be revealed. He was only stopped when she was pushed out of the way by another clone henge'd to look like another guard.

Pandemonium broke out.

The nobles rushed to save face and declare her a liar, but their time of inaction to stop her words had proven that they was some truth to their words, their immediate reaction to calling someone as high in the heirarchy as her a liar also proved that they were hiding something. To go so far as to publicly silence her with many witnesses didn't help their standing with the people who they had manipulated into sympathizing with her and her loss of a father to assassins.

The damage had been wrought, and even weeks after the princess was confined in her room in the castle of the king, her truths spread throughout the land like wildfire. Naruto's forces didn't really have to do anything aside from encourage the people to finally rise up against the nobility and the army. He gathered sympathizers from the army to join his ranks as well so that they could not be used against the people.

The civil war started soon after the army had been compromised. Naruto moved his forces to aid those that wanted to overthrow the current king and wanted the princess to rule, it was all so unreal to most that it was happening. He sent in more clones, this was one of the best ways to get rid of his original clone army.

Villages rose up, towns rose up, and cities fell to the common people. City after city fell to people that wanted their loved ones back, for the war to end. They didn't think about how they would defend their country from the others, just that they wanted to be freed from the lies. They wanted their rulers to actually care about them for once and not only for their own power.

When families were forced into hiding their relatives and friends were informed that it was through the princess that they were being saved, that even though she was locked up in some tower in the capital's castle her helpers were still out and about doing their best. It was also revealed that she had made some friends with an unaffiliated army that was ready to aid the country if they needed it after their civil war was won.

It was like flash fire, one moment the princess' cousin sat on the throne and in the next instance the princess was elected as Queen of the land, a first in the continent. The army was called back, and it was time for Naruto to announce his presence to the continent.

Soon the other nations did not need much prodding, there were internal conflicts as well, so Naruto sent help to those that wished to have their countries pull out of the war. In the absence of the various armies, Naruto filled in the gaps that were left behind on the battlefield with his finished automatons, his golem army. They were hulking things made out of metal and stone, they lived off or were fueled by magical crystal that Naruto had created through chakra and magic solidifying the two energies into a battery that were recharged by pulling a little bit of both from out of nature itself.

These hulking masses of magical and chakra creation rose just beyond the borders of Cloudroot, there were just six of them, and they were commanded by Naruto's troops. But he was still in the process of creating more. With each country that joined the kind of ceasefire, he let rise more of these giants. His clones were always busy in some part of the warzone constructing the massive things while some smaller groups of clones concentrated on constructing some smaller ones.

There were some kingdoms that didn't relent to their peoples' desire for peace and these were the ones that decided that Naruto was just another power-seeker. So they formed a temporary alliance with one another, five great kingdoms. They banded together and made a move for Cloudroot, the first to back out of the war was to be the first to fall.

Naruto couldn't have that.

So he marshalled his armies and prepared for battle, this was a battle for peace. He was going to fight to protect the peace that he had orchestrated. He had a condition to fulfil, a promise if you will, he needed the fighting to end. All the kingdoms that were with him had surrendered their power to him, backing him up, supporting him. The path to peace while paved with some blood had taken a good ten more years due to the length of time it took to infect the other nations with the concept and pros of peace.

Naruto, while staying mostly in the shadows, was recognized as a more than a symbol of peace, he was hope, as he was the only one insane enough to stand against a continent of war in the hopes of bringing about peace. Another thing that people liked about him was that he actually fought alongside his troops, and always on the defense. He only retaliated and never went on the offensive, he never sought out battle, only the mutual coexistence of everyone.

But for the approaching battle, his officers and the rulers of the kingdoms that had formed an alliance with him had convinced him to keep back and let the people fight for their peace. They convinced him to stay away from the fighting and only join when it seemed all hope was lost. He acquiesced and let the troops of men and automaton engage the opposing alliance.

The battle was a fierce one each with side giving it their all, but it seemed that even in this time and continent protecting ones' precious people really did give some added strength to the fighters. But when it looked like the battle was about to be won by Naruto's side the enemy threw out their trump card.

"Why couldn't it have been a Hungarian Horntail..." Naruto said, he didn't know why he chose to name that particular dragon, but he did anyway, "...It had to be something like that..."

"What is it Lord Naruto?" Tempest, Torrent's son asked, "I've never seen such a monstrosity in my life."

"It's a Chimera," Naruto replied, "I read about it in one of my great great grandfather's books, it is a hybrid, and it looks like the warmongers played with far too many elements than to my liking."

"Then should I call for a retreat?" Tempest asked.

"No," Naruto said, he shrugged off the red cloak he had been wearing over his armor covered 12-13 year old body, "I'm going to be taking care of this thing, though if I don't return...well...make sure the peace stays Tempest."

"I shall do my best to ensure that your wishes are fulfilled," Tempest said as he bowed to his sworn Lord, the rulers of the lands that had joined Naruto had unanimously decided that for there to be peace throughout the lands, they must all truly be united under one banner, while they would keep their kingdoms, they would bow before one ruler, an emperor. But of course they'd have to win this one battle first before it would become official.

"See that you do," Naruto said, while it may have been weird for a 12-13 year old to be giving such orders and receiving such respect, he had done so much, his mere presense and association changed people for the better, though there were some that were immune to his charms, such as their enemy.

The chimera was not like the one that Bellerophon killed in ancient greek mythology, this one was a combination of the nine tailed beasts, but with only one tail, it had all the heads, arms, and legs, of the beasts though, making it quite the sight. It bothered not our young hero Naruto, for he was more than prepared for such a meager threat, yet sensed that his time in this wayward era was drawing to a close. His great great grandfather was wrong when it came to the actual number of years in the past that the youth had gotten himself trapped in, it was longer than a hundred years, it was more.

He zoomed from the mountain wall of Cloudroot, literally flying over the armies that were fighting for the peace that a majority of the continent so wished to achieve. They watched as his form sped off to defend them once again, once again against a foe that not even an army could hope to face and win. He sped off to face a beast so horrible that the alliance of kingdoms that sought his destruction and for the rivers of blood to continue to flow freely once more had let loose upon the continent.

Too bad they were unaware of a true monster, one so fierce that it had at one time, as one part of nine, threatened to destroy the whole of the world had it not been for the brave warriors that held it at bay, the warrior that sealed it away, and split it into nine separate pieces.

He landed with feline grace before the hulking mass of flesh, blood, and bone. He glared up at it with all of the killing intent that he could muster, which was quite a lot. His body exploded unexpectedly, to both sides, first with a brilliant blue flame followed up by a fiery red, the color of rage and hate, the two flames merged to form am alluring purple flame. It was his aura, his presence, his chakra. He had not been able to locate the man named Rosuto Juushu thus had been holding back his power, all of it with his very will alone. He was calm and collected most of the time, even in battle he was what a true shinobi was supposed to be, his face clear of emotions, or strong emotions. He held his power, his might at bay, it was quite gravitational in its majesty, a little bit like Ryoku's but different, vaguely and vastly different.

The beast glared down on the silver and crimson armor and clothed youth, its own intent to kill battling with the maelstorm of death directed at itself. Two opposing forces of almost equal strength vying for dominance over one another, but both realizing early on that the first round in their battle was not to be won by either of them. It was to be a tie, both knew, as the chimera was sentient enough to know such things, but could not veer from the path set by its masters and creators. It was born out of the hate and rage of the kings of the allaince hell bent on shrouding their continent in an endless war amongst themselves.

It was time for actions to speak since words could not be used to defeat this foe. Negotiations had failed with this beast's masters, therefore it was a time for actions. Both youth and beast prepared themselves for a clash of a lifetime. The beast bared its fangs and readied its claws, this was something that would be fighting with its all, it had no consciece or compunctions against using everything it could to defeat its foes, even its own allies were nothing in its eyes, it only had it's objective and it's masters.

All Naruto had on his person other than his things all sealed up in his storage tattoos were multitudes of kunai and shuriken sealed as well within chakra activated sealed on his wrists, and a pair of kodachi strapped to his back overlapping one another, there was also a single bastard sword strapped to his back its tip pointing straight to the ground. He drew the sword from its sheath and held it with only one hand, when most would use two. He held it to his side, and even looked like he was leaning on it casually.

Both sides of the battlefield continued to battle one another, but kept at least one eye on the two trump cards. Neither side knew of what Naruto was doing, some thinking that he wasn't taking things seriously. But he was, he was taking things seriously. His glowing inferno shrank into himself.

His unoccupied hand flashed quickly through a number of single-handed seals, and when his hand ended in the last seal he flung his sword, which was coated in purple chakra, at the beast's center head, that of a fox, and in his mind he shouted, '_Hijutsu: Tajuu Kage Tsurugi no Jutsu!_'

It took a split second before the jutsu activated, and when it did the effects were visible to all that witnessed it. It was another kinjutsu, and what made it such was that it needed magic as well as chakra to be performed. It multiplied the sword coated in the user's chakra, the amount of which was double the amount needed for creating kage bushin times the number of clones, and created solid and real copies of the sword a set number of time. The number of created sword was determined by the amount of chakra poured into the technique. The magic required did not have a set amount, only that it was used. The magic was also how the user of the technique set the parameters and activated the jutsu, the magic was how the user conveyed his will to the chakra. It was also how the chakra remained enshrouded around the sword away from the grip of the user. The magic was also required for the copies of the sword to be vanished once they were no longer needed as they would pull ambient chakra and magic from nature if left alone for too long.

The sword multiplied into ten, for the ten heads of the chimera. The result was that the whole of the battlefield froze when all the swords hit their targets. The beast's nine bijuu heads scrunched up in pain, and the men on the field of battle toppled over clutching their jewels, the few women on the field managed to get in a few free kill shots while the men were temporarily downed. Naruto mentally winced for what he had done for his first attack during the second round of his own fight.

It was a really low blow, especially for one such as himself. As soon as the attack struck true, he summoned his blade to himself while vanishing the nine copies of it. He reversed his grip on his sword, even though it would make his blows half as powerful, then ran while keeping a steady stream of his kunai and shuriken flying at the beast. His relentless blows seemed like mere ant bites as compared to the near devastating one he had delivered to the beast's most important head.

He had succeeded in enraging it and once it had fully recovered, which only took a manner of seconds, it pounced and the fight all around them began anew. Its own rage was overflowing, and it poured all of it, a highly concentrated amount, on Naruto who slammed his own right back at the beast.

He dodged massive claws and paws, the single tail, and all the maws, along with all the putrid stenches, poisons, acids, breaths, and elemental attacks that the beast could manage to pull out of it's ass. Fire. Lightning. Water. Ice. Metal. Wood. Wind. Storm. Earth. Dust. Lava. Steam. Plasma. Sand. And a host of other elements, sub-elements, combination of them all. They were all headed right for him. Each attack ripping up or destroying a part of the battlefield.

Naruto kept casualties on his side to a minimum making excellent use of his clones, they appeared and zipped across the battlefield taking the wounded back bahind the safezone, back behind the wall of Cloudroot for immediate medical aid. They moved with such speed that they all were less than a blur to any that cared to attempt to track them as they rescued as many warriors of peace as they could from the impending dooms that continually rained down on the field of battle sent forth by the chimera as its rage consumed its sentience turning it into a true beast, a real monster.

Once Naruto ran out of projectile weapons, he began the second phase of his plan to take down his enemy's trump card, his enemy's champion. The first part being his literally litering the beast's hide with his projectiles, all of which had seals crisscrossing each and every one of them, they were all part of his second kinjutsu attack on the beast. There were exactly nineteen thousand six hundred eighty three projectiles with those crisscrossing seals enscribed on them, that was a rather large amount, and were all needed for this AOE attack. But it wasn't just the level of skill in the art of fuinjutsu that made the jutsu a kinjutsu nor was the exact number of projectiles what made it such a dangerous technique. It was what the second phase of the plan that made it very dangerous to the user.

The second phase wasn't the activation of the technique as that was the third phase, it was standing still long enough for an ungodly amount of damage to be dealt to him by his victim and living to move onto phase three. It was the most god-awful thing he had to endure, and it was also the first time that he would be using it to its potential.

He was struck by lightning bolts whose energy could have been used to light up the entirety of London for an entire month. He was crushed underneath tons upon tons of force that had he been a lump of coal he would have turned into a diamond second after the crushing forces hit him. There had been enough molten rock and flames to melt a city's worth of diamonds in a matter of seconds. He was stabbed pretty much through every pore in his body by needles made out of varying elements. A lot of things hit him and he used every ounce of magic he had to spare to heal himself continuously for the duration of his suffering, while doing that he also gathered up all of his chakra as he readied himself to enter phase three.

The Shinigami waited with baited breath, ready to step in and annihilate the world in case Naruto failed in his mission. He watched helplessly as one of his favorite mortals pushed past his limits to do one of the stupidest things that one of his ancestors had created, that and he knew that Naruto had a time limit to keep to, he had a deadline to reach before he expired due to failure of the technique.

When he believed that he was almost at his limit, even though he had gone way past it already, Naruto pushed out his chakras, he sent them surging unhindered into the seals that peppered the beast's hide, lighting them all up at the exact same time and channeling all the pain and suffering Naruto had received and sending it all back to its originator. It wasn't a technique that reflected damage dealt on the user back to the attacker, it sent a gravitaionally devastating attack at whatever was within the field created by all those projectiles, the pull of gravity multiplied by the power that had been unleashed upon Naruto divided by the number of seals needed for the jutsu to be activated.

It was called Hijutsu: Mazo Shindou or Secret Technique: Masochist Impact.

The chimera was smashed into the ground, as the technique only applied to whatever the projectiles were touching, crushing it faster than its healing factor which was just like every regular person on the battlefield as its creators didn't think that there would be anything that would be able to actually turn it into a puddle of goo that fast. It was such a non-biodegradable mess that it would remain in place as a swamp of goo for the remainder of time, a reminder of what could have become of the entire continent had peace not been founded for the continent that day.

Naruto's enemies immediately surrendered to Naruto's forces upon seeing just how much Naruto had been holding back on them this whole time. His allies hadn't known that he could do that since he never practiced such a thing before their very eyes, or so they thought. The projectiles were turned to mush seconds after Naruto ended the technique, which left him almost drained of all energy, the only thing keeping him standing was his will alone. He wanted to see the battle to the end.

He was left vulnerable due to that last attack, but since he didn't have to worry about anyone attacking him out of fear of what his retaliation might hold, he just stood there leaning on his sword for support but making sure to keep the look of apathy on his face. Friend nor foe dared go near him, their fear of the unknown was far too great. Only one person dared, an old man whose hair despite his age was still a radiant shock of sun kissed blonde, he stood before the youthful Lord and bowed.

"I must apologize for my tardiness," the old man, who wore the robes of a daimyo and the hat of a kage, said, "It seems that we have been missing one another each time we tried to meet. I am Rosuto Juushu, and have been instructed by an animated corpse to deliver you an eye patch, one similar in placement and simplicity to that of Power."

"Thanks, though I don't think I really need it at this point," Naruto said, his tone was rather dry, "But thanks anyway."

"Your welcome _little cousin_," the old man said, he then placed the eye patch where it belonged.

Naruto didn't think he needed the patch at this point in time anymore, but the moment that one of his eyes had been covered, a strange sensation washed over everyone on the battlefield. While Naruto had thought that he had achieved the mastery over his hereditary gifts requied for his no longer needing a limiter to his power outage, he was wrong. Unknown to him his gifts had been running wild around him, its area of coverage was unlimited in its nearly uncontrolled state. It followed his feelings more than anything else, it also followed his thoughts as well as manifested some of his minor fears. His power formed a light blanket over everything around him, empowering his allies and weakening his foes. The effects of the rampantly running power were random, most of them anyway.

He didn't know all of the things that his power had done unchecked, but there were some noticeable ones. One of them was that he felt a pull at his navel, a slight tugging sensation, one that caused his form to flicker for the duration of the tug then stop when the tug stopped. Another one was that he felt a bit more sluggish, he moved slower not because of how tired he was but because there wasn't anything automatically powering him up. One other thing was that he fell face first onto the ground unconscious, that's something that one can't easily miss, it wasn't due to being exhausted. It was due to all of his power being sucked into him and shoved into separage cages within himself.

"*"  
It was several hours later when Naruto finally regained consciousness, most of that time he had spent in his inner sanctum. He had been in his mindscape familiarizing himself with the limiter that he had been given, as well as some additional gifts from the old man, they were additions to the regulator of his many powers. He had been gifted with interchangeable doujutsu. One for each different power, and each power having three stages. The first one was the simple access to the power without the need for the manifestation of the symbolic doujutsu. The second stage needed the manifestation to appear, thus granting limited access to the power, a wider range of possibilities. The third stage was access to the whole of the power.

The powers could be used together and separately regardless of the prescence of the eye patch, but the strength and limit depended on the presence of the eye patch.

With the limiter... At stage one time could be slowed down. At stage two time could be stopped for a few moments. At stage three time would almost be a plaything. This was while the eyepatch was still worn and one eye covered.

Without the limiter... At stage one time could be stalled, followed by the stopping of time, then there was access to the timestream, the river of time, a peek at time itself. His limiter, the eye patch, was the key to the kinjutsu of kinjutsu, for his library of tools anyway.

"How are you feeling my Lord?" Tempest asked, his father and the rest of the army officials had left him in charge of their unconscious boss.

"I'm never doing that again..." Naruto said softly, "I should be renamed phoenix, I was at the cusp of death so many times that I can hardly believe I lived to even activate that damned thing."

"Well, you are still here with us," Tempest said, then he asked a very important question, "Should I inform the others that you have returned to us? I also didn't remove your new accessory."

"A good thing you didn't," Naruto said as he sat up on the bed he was laying on, "It seems that I hadn't truly mastered my gifts yet, this patch regulates, limits, and controls them to a far better extent than I have been."

"I see," Tempest said, "The answer to my question?"

"Send them in," Naruto said, "They're just outside the door, I can feel them somehow."

"Right away sir," Tempest said and called out for his fellows to flood the room.

The officers of the army, the upper echelon of Naruto's forces barreled their way into Naruto's room within his city-like fortress. They were all relieved that he was alright and back with them again, most had feared that he would never again wake.

"I have some good news and some bad news," Naruto spoke to them all, "I am well aware of the plot of the rulers to elevate my position to greater heights while I would normally gladly accept, I must decline. I am in no shape fit for such a position."

"Why?" Torrent asked, on behalf of his comrades, "You're here with us now, alive and well according to the doctors. You've led us to peace, even our former enemies have decided that the best course of action from this point onwards would be to coexist rather than destroy one another."

"I am not long for this time," Naruto replied, "I feel the pull every now and then, even in my unconscious state, they are short or brief, but I feel them. I have served my purpose here, to bring hope to the people of the possibility of peace, and to end the senseless war."

"You can't just leave us!" the Queen of Cloudroot exclaimed as she burst through the door to his room, "You've fought far too long and hard for such a thing to happen!"

"The peace will last for well over a thousand years or more even without my being here," Naruto said, "I really don't have any say in the matter. As much as I would wish to stay with you all, you my precious people. I am unable to stay for much longer...maybe a day more and we shall no longer see each other ever again."

"Queen Summer Everwinter of Cloudroot, I'm sorry but I really have no control over my leaving," Naruto said, "I feel that I am still needed elsewhere, that there is more that I need to accomplish, to do. Look at me," he motioned to himself, his unaging form, "I have remained a youth throughout all the years that I have lived in this continent. I have not aged a day since my arrival. Be it due to my gifts or something greater, I know not. But it surely must mean that I am not meant to grow old with all of you, my friends and comrades."

"Leave us," she said authoratively to all the officers present, while they were not officers in her country's army, they reluctantly obeyed. She was the first of all the rulers to aid the cause of peace, the first to truly attempt to usher the continent into this age of coexsitence amongst all nations. She was also a young woman herself of such beauty that perhaps she could use her womanly wiles to sway his decision or resignation from leaving to staying.

"No matter what you try, my leaving is not my personal choice, it is just something that I have to do," Naruto said while looking her in the eyes, "Were I able, I would leave a part of me here to watch the progress of what I had strived to accomplish reach even greater heights. But I am unable to do even that. There is nothing you can do to sway the inevitability of my leaving, or my passing."

"Fine," she said, in understanding, "But you are wrong in saying that you cannot leave even a small part of you here. We all have memories of you. There is even that record of your arrest and escape from that one prison. There is also something other than your experiences with all of us that you can leave behind, something other than your intangible accomplishments."

"And what pray would that be?" Naruto said, arching a single eyebrow at her in curiosity, his eyes no longer locked with hers, instead they roamed her form, he didn't understand why until he found himself pinned under her slender and milky white form, a form devoid of any vestments of any kind. She had put him under a spell of some sort, an illusion, she was one of the special people that had a gift when it came to external chakra manipulation. She held within her the allure of a veela, and she had just used it on him.

"Do you like what you see, Lord Naruto?" she asked him seductively, he could only gulp and nervously nod, "Please allow me the honor of bearing your legacy."

"*"

"Well?" Torrent asked his son who had taken a peek through through the crack under the door, "What's going on in there?"

"Lucky bastard," Tempest told his father, "He is one lucky bastard."

"Kindly elaborate please," one of the other officers requested.

"Well...it seems that he aged himself through transformation in order to leave a part of himself with us," Tempest said, "Thus his being an extremely lucky bastard."

"I see," Torrent said and walked away from the group, "I'll agree with you on that son, but I think its time I go find your mother."

The gathered officers murmured amongst themselves before following Torrent in the direction that he was heading and with similar destinations in mind for similar purposes.

"I guess I might as well keep watch," Tempest said, "The Age of Coexistence has just begun, in his present state Lord Naruto might need my aid in staying the hand of death from those that would wish some form of retribution for the end of the neverending war."

He took a seat by the side of the door into his lord's quarters where no sound escaped, and from which small shadows from the crack under the door danced by the light of the hearth within the room. He sat and meditated, connecting himself with the world in a manner of speaking. This was how he would keep watch for any that would wish his lord any harm.

Tempest was a Sage, and unfortunately Naruto didn't know that.

Sundown the next afternoon, the higher ups of Naruto's forces were gathered around him in the courtyard of the former fortress, now castle of the forested city that kept watch over the former war zone. He had left his armor, and the weapons he used in this place. He had with him only those things that he had arrived with, plus some new clothes. He looked the part of a rather young anbu operative, but instead of white armor his were brown in color, which could be considered as a gradient or shade of orange somehow. He also had a face mask on, one similar to Kakashi's. He of course also had his eye patch over his left eye. Over the anbu type gear, he had a hooded trench cloak colored dark gray.

"Its been fun," Naruto said, "I would love to see you all again, but I doubt that will be possible. This is goodbye, but I do hope to somehow one day meet with you all again through your descendants."

"But how are you leaving, Lord Naruto?" Torrent asked.

"Like this," Naruto said as his form shimmered visibly, then it shook, then blurred, and before vanishing from their sights completely he said, "Take care everyone, and live long and happy lives!"

All those present felt something akin to thunder without sound slamming into them and all around them. It was something else.

"At least he said goodbye," Tempest said.

"I wonder where he went," Torrent said.

"Tis not where, but when, father," Tempest told his old man, "He did say descendants, didn't he."

"Oh bugger," Torrent said as he followed everyone else to dinner.

Nine months later Cloudroot celebrated the birth of triplets. Naruto did indeed leave a legacy behind, a tangible one in the form of his three children by Queen Summer, two boys and a girl. The two boys would be readied for their future positions in politics of the contient. The eldest would rule the continent in his father's stead as Emperor as the rulers wished, the middle child would rule when his mother stepped down from the throne of Cloudroot, and the youngest would live free to do as she pleased unlike her brothers.

All three would grow up hearing the tales of their father's heroism, his determination, and will, as well as his dream. While they would be unable to grow up with their father with them to guide them, they would grow up with people that knew him, and they would grow to know him through them, as would their own children grow to know the great man that united a continent under the banner of peace.


	61. Chapter 61

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter sixty-one**_

She had been lead to a room somewhere in within the castle where the Mizu Daimyo resided, while her companion had been shipped off to Kaminari no Kuni, specifically to Kumo with his mind restored somewhat and only remaining in the state of merely teetering on the edge of sanity and insanity.

She didn't know why she had been brought to the capital of Mizu no Kuni and was even given her own private room. She didn't understand any of it, and a part of her wished for some kind of comfort to be bestowed upon her, something like a familiar face, even that one odd jounin that had accompanied her some of the time around Kiri. The room was fit for a princess, while she was one in a way, she didn't think it was appropriate for her to have such accomodations especially with the history her country and the one she was presently in had with one another.

She was told that she could go wherever she wished within the castle, if there was somewhere she was not allowed to enter she was told that she would know, she wouldn't be able to find those places either, they would simply slip from her view. She was also forced to dress in kimonos made of silks, and other such expensive materials.

She walked around as she had been told that she had such privelages, she tried to find something that she could report back to her superiors in Kumo about. But she could find nothing of note, while that was something that could be reported in and of itself, it was still not enough for her. She needed something more, something that would make what she had to endure worth it.

"You know you won't find anything worth reporting here," a voice suddenly spoke up while she was in deep thought in one of the gardens that littered the castle, "I won't discourage you from trying to find something worth your village's or your country's time. Please treat this as a vacation from your duties as a kunoichi of your village, as a soldier of Kaminari."

"Who are you?" she said as she spun to face the owner of the voice and found herself standing mere feet away from a man in the unmistakeable robes of the Mizu Daimyo, Ryoku. She dropped to the ground in respect for the ruler of the land, to show any more disrespect than she already had shown might actually get her the normalcy she had been looking for, and she didn't really want to die, "My apologies Daimyo-sama."

"You have nothing to be apologetic for," Ryoku said as he walked over to her and motioned for her to rise, "And don't try to hide those thoughts of yours about trying to kidnap me. You could try, but I promise that you would fail."

"If I may ask.." she said as she stood but did not look up to him, it was disrespectful in a way to dare look at the face of a daimyo.

"You may," he said as he sat on a rock that had not been in the garden before.

"Why have I been treated the way I have been?" she asked, hoping to get a straight and truthful and normal answer.

"Because you are a guest of Mizu," Ryoku said, "You are no threat to my Hidden Village or to my country. You also did not sneak into my village like an assassin or a spy. You were sent here, you even rode in one of my carriages. There are other reasons, but you don't need to hear those ones. I really shouldn't even be explaining my orders to one such as yourself, I am daimyo here and do as I please..._most of the time._"

"I'm so.." she began to apologize but he raised a hand to stop her attempt.

"No need," Ryoku said, "You were told that you are permitted to walk around the castle and the grounds. During this visit of yours with me and my family, you are strictly restricted to the castle and grounds, unless specifically given permission to visit the city by myself or a member of my family. I would ask that you try not to cause my court any problems during your stay and follow any other things I or my family tell you to do. Your performance will determine how I will deal with your country as a whole in the future, if or when I decide to bring my country out of its lockdown."

"But isn't my snooping around for information like spying?" she had to ask.

"I guess it could be seen that way," Ryoku said, "But my secrets guard themselves," he then began to walk away as he could hear the approach of some of his court officials, "Before I forget, I would advise you against trying to unleash the cat, kitty cat. Else you want to lose it."

He was gone before she could ask him anything else, seconds later she watched three shuriken land where he had been standing moments before. She also witnessed Kiri Anbu actually run into the garden, landing around her, but none of them actually paid her any mind they looked to be looking for something or someone, probably whoever it was that had thrown the shuriken.

"Where did he go?" one of the anbu asked her.

"W-who?" she asked, she couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous around the squad.

"Mizu Daimyo-sama," the anbu told her, "The court is running out of patience and has hired us to hunt him down. Now, where did he go?"

"I don't know," she admitted, "One moment he was speaking with me and the next he was just gone."

"Thank you for your assistance," the anbu said and signed his squad to track down their daimyo, "Now if you will excuse me, I have a rogue daimyo to track down."

It was a very odd thing to experience, her experience with daimyos were that they were usually not all that physically fit enough to require anbu to track them down for a meeting with their court or a meeting with a foreign dignitary. That was something to file away for her report if or when she returned to her village, she had a feeling that she would be returning to her village in relatively one piece.

She wandered around the castle, visiting the different gardens throughout the day, having her meals brought to her, she might as well spoil herself a little bit while she could, and waited to be summoned for dinner which she would be having with the daimyo and his family if any of them were around, or so the attendant that informed her of the dinner arrangements said.

She was called later on for dinner and forced to change her clothes by some servants, while she tried to get them to let her dress herself, they seemed to have been used to the treatment and words and didn't relent in their helping her. She ended up looking like she was going to a party rather than a simple dinner.

When she arrived at the dinning hall, she found herself in a simple room, one that did not scream opulence, but rather simplicity save for the way all the people inside were dressed. Their attire contrasted with the simplicity of the room. But what she found most surprising was that the anbu she had met earlier were all in attendance, even they were dressed to the nines.

She was made to sit some seats away from the daimyo.

"Ah finally, we're all here," Ryoku said, he then snapped his fingers and food appeared before them like it had been there all the time, in truth the food had been there all that time he just hid it, "Dinner is served."

"You didn't send the kitchen staff on another set of ridiculous errands did you, Yondaime-sama?" one of the anbu asked.

"Why would I do that?" Ryoku innocently asked, "I'll have you know that they actually helped gather the ingredients for all these dishes."

"So...you cooked all this then.." the anbu said.

"Of course!" Ryoku happily admitted as he took a bite out of a tempura, "Though I'm a bit disappointed that my wife decided to attend her security meeting rather than come for dinner. I even made her favorite dessert."

"We could take her some when we return to the village later this evening, sir," the anbu suggested.

"So nice of you to volunteer," Ryoku said.

"Anything for you Yondaime-sama," the anbu said.

Yugito didn't know what to think of this new development, she overanalyzed the situation and it showed on her normally schooled face. She was in deep thought rather than enjoying the meal alongside the assortment of samurai, ninja, court officials, attendants, and other smartly dressed people.

"It's not that I don't trust my own kitchen staff," Ryoku's voice cut through her thoughts, "I just enjoy cooking, so please enjoy the meal, very few are able to boast that they have had a meal prepared by the daimyo of a land after all."

She was a bit embarassed by his noticing her spaced out self, and so dug in, and actually found the food delicious as if it had been prepared with magic, something which she refused to put any stock in. Even though Ryoku really did prepare the food with the aid of magic.

The meal was over in what seemed like as soon as it had started. She enjoyed the atmosphere while she ate and forgot that she was supposed to be a prisoner rather than a guest. She retired to her room with a full and satisfied stomach, and a smile on her face. The last thing she thought about was that the only thing that would have completed her day was a short chat with that odd jounin.

Two days later as she was out watching the royal guard train in the outer courtyard, she heard a voice that she didn't think she'd ever forget or mistake as anyone else's. She whirled around and witnessed a rather familiar sight, but instead of the anbu tracking down the daimyo, they were actually attempting to subdue the odd jounin.

"Can't catch me!" Takeshi shouted as he dodged the multiple blades that tried to hit him, none of which actually managed to hit him, "This is why.." he said as he dodged several kunai and shuriken flying at him, "You're the ones sent to fetch the daimyo!"

"Takeshi!" Yugito shouted and waved at him, she didn't really mean to distract him, but she did.

"Gyah!" he said as he was impaled by the blades of all the anbu, which actually shocked them, they froze thinking that they had killed him, a moment later a log took his place and he was running in her direction. Instead of stopping, he grabbed her hand and got her to run with him away from the still in shock anbu. They returned to the chase when the shock finally washed away.

They gave up, after the duo vanished into a wall, and went back to wait for the daimyo with his escort as they were really at the capital as his shinobi guards for a short trip to one of the land's other cities. Though they did all wonder why their commander could get distracted by the jinchuuriki so easily.

Takeshi really knew his way around, or that was what Yugito was thinking as she was being led around the maze of hallways and corridors that appeared once in a while out of nowhere. They stopped running once they were on the roof of the castle itself.

"Sorry about distracting you," she apologized, "You could have gotten seriously hurt, I think those anbu actually thought they'd killed you or something."

"Nah, s'alright," he said, as he laid sat on the tiled roof and motioned for her to sit by him, "I shouldn't have been so easily distracted. But fighting them was fun."

"Why were they after you anyway?" she asked.

"Oh, hehe," he ran a hand through his hair, "While in the capital, I'm supposed to wear a kimono, like you, and not my ninja duds. Hehe, the attendants probably ordered those anbu to catch me to deliver me to their evil clutches."

"So why don't you wear one?" she asked, "I mean, I'm not really used to wearing one, but look at me."

"Well you look rather beautiful in one," he said not really thinking about what he had just said, and looked out and at the city that sprawled out around the castle below them.

She blushed a bit and looked a way in slight embarassment, no one ever really commented her on her beauty before, only on her skills and value to her village. She was quite flattered really.

"So..what do you have planned for tomorrow?" he asked.

"I don't know," she admitted, as she simply did whatever she could think of to occupy herself, there really wasn't much to do at the castle aside from homely things that she learned about in those special kunoichi classes, and watch the soldiers train, or witness the boring things of the court. Though occasionally playing witness to the daimyo ditching his officials and the anbu was a sight to behold.

"How'd you like to visit the city then?" he asked her casually.

"I'd have to ask Mizu Daimyo-sama first," she said, remembering that she could only go beyond the walls if she got his permission or one of his family to give her permission, she didn't know of Takeshi's connection.

"Why's that? Its not like you're a prisoner here," he said, "You're a guest, and from what I hear you've been given one of the really posh rooms here at the castle."

"But I was told that I'm restricted to just the castle and its grounds," she said, "Though it is a bit boring in here."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," he said, "My brother and I used to sneak out whenever we could get away with it, when we were little. So how about it? Wanna visit the city?"

"I'll think about it," she said.

"Well, its nearly dinner time," he said as he stood up and held out a hand to her, "The old man might be looking for you, better get you back to the castle proper."

He led her down to her room, she didn't know how he knew where it was. But she did know that she wanted to kill him as soon as he pushed her into the room and high tailed it out of there. He had left her alone with the demons that wanted to get her ready for dinner. Leaving her room and entering the dinning room she was disappointed when she found that Takeshi was not amongst the people there.

"You seem rather disappointed," Ryoku noted once the meal began, "Care to share what has gotten you to be a little down?"

"I thought...nevermind," she said.

"I see," he said, then spoke to someone else, one of the anbu, "It seems like he has managed to escape you yet again."

"Unfortunately," the anbu said, "But we did manage to momentarily catch him. Your guest managed to distract him."

"That is good to know in a way," Ryoku said, and returned to his food.

"Uhm..ano.." Yugito said.

"Yes?" Ryoku said not looking at her as he was focusing more on his food.

"Who are you talking about, if you don't mind me asking," she said.

"A rather elusive jounin that decided to eat out in the city rather than enjoy my cooking," Ryoku said, he wasn't at all irritated at his own kid, Shiro was the one that loved the castle.

"Oh," she said, "Uhm...would it be possible for me to visit the city tomorrow?"

"No," Ryoku said.

Later that night, before Yugito was to go to bed she heard a sound, like someone slinking on the roof just outside her room's window. She cursed her luck at having no weapons to use to defend herself, and she didn't really know if using her chakra would be a good thing within the castle. She still had her taijutsu and so prepared for anything.

She was about to strike at the supposed trespasser that appeared at her window, her punch was caught calmly by the hand of the supposed trespasser. Which forced her to actually look at the person she had tried to attack. The man that stood just outside her window was a member of anbu that much was certain, his clothes fit right in with what Yugito knew that the anbu of kiri wore. She had most likely gotten herself in big trouble for attacking an anbu.

This anbu was bathed in the light of the full moon that hung in the sky as the sole source of light that night. It was a cloudless night, yet not a single star could be seen in the sky. It was a little bit unreal. He stood there bathed in the moonlight with one hand wrapped around her fist.

"I heard about you asking the old man permission," the anbu member said, his voice unmistakeable.

"Takeshi-kun?" Yugito said, and he let her fist go which she dropped to her side. She realized that she was already in her sleep clothes, which didn't really consist of much, thus she moved to wrap her clothes more tightly around her, her cheeks flushing with a bit of embarrasment.

"Hai," he said, and entered the room, even though he had not been invited, "I am he. I must say, you're even more beautiful than I thought earlier today. You look like a princess."

"T-thank you for the compliments Takeshi-kun," she said, then asked, "What, might I ask, are you doing here?"

"I'm here to kidnap you," he stated, "Such a lovely flower such as yourself should not be cooped up in such a boring place. So how about it? Will you let me kidnap you?"

"Won't you get in trouble with the daimyo?" she asked him, while she really acutally wanted to get _kidnapped_.

"Depends," Takeshi said, "It depends on whether or not we get caught."

"I'd like to.." she said a little bit shyly, which surprised her on the inside, "But..I wouldn't want you to get in trouble."

"Don't worry so much about me, so how about it?" he asked her kneeling before her.

"I'm not sure.." she said, "I don't want you to get in trouble just for my sake."

"Alright," he said, as he stood up, still facing her he proposed a compromise, "How about I take you out to the city for the night and bring you back before your attendants check up on you?"

"A-alright," she said, her hands had let go of her sleep clothes and her index fingers were poking each other, "S-should I c-change?"

"Nah," he said, "You look fine the way you are. You can get changed once we're in the city itself, I know someone that would be happy to lend you a spare kimono."

"Ok," she said, and so he moved behind her, faster than her trained eyes could track and lifted her up bridal style, and jumped out the window and into the cold night air.

She wrapped her arms around him, and he carried her stealthily out of the castle. She couldn't help but enjoy the feeling of letting her true gender out, acting like one of those masculine ninja for most of her life, even though she was a kunoichi, was a bit satisfying. She felt like a real girl in his arms, as he acted all macho, like a character in one of those romance novels the civilians read that were about ninja saving princesses.

Takeshi had removed his mask once he got behind Yugito, though he did keep the facemask that covered the lower portion of his face. He knew that it was very likely that his father knew of his _kidnapping_, but doubted that the man would send anyone out after him and Yugito. He knew that the girl really just needed permission from a royal to leave, and Takeshi was one himself. He dodged some of the guards stationed around the castle. He decided, just to be on the safe side, that he would act like he was really on a kidnapping mission.

Once they were a safe distance away from the castle walls, Takeshi slowed down and stopped while on some random rooftop. It was only then that Yugito realized that he had gotten her out of the castle with no chakra use at all. He had acted like one of the ninja in the novels, those ones that had ninja that didn't rely on chakra.

"You didn't use chakra," she said to him in surprise, she couldn't really believe that it had been possible.

"Yeah," Takeshi said, "I didn't want to get caught. The castle is one of the most heavily fortified structures in all of Mizu, those that don't know about all the defenses would have an easier time getting into the Mizukage Tower in Kiri than getting into the castle unscathed. There's also the fact that if an assassin managed to get to the daimyo, the assassin would instantly fail."

"You're that confident in the daimyo's guards," she said, "Are you one of them?"

"Me? A guard? Hardly," Takeshi said, "I'll tell you a secret, you can tell your uncle if you want. I'm not a regular jounin."

"I noticed," she said, "By your outfit I'd say you're anbu."

"Yeah," Takeshi said, "But that's not the secret."

"Oh," she said, "What is?"

"I'm the Anbu Commander of Kirigakure no Sato," he told her proudly, "While the rules say that I'm not really supposed to reveal that, I'm making you the exception. Hope you don't mind that the Anbu Commander of a technical enemy village is interested in you."

"Are you asking me out?" she said, "After already kidnapping me, and risking your job?"

"Yeah, I guess I am," he said, once again running his hand through his hair, a nervous habit he shared with his family, "I'm also tryin to impress you with my personal achievements, is it working?"

"I guess," she said, then leaned against his chest, "Now about that change of clothes, its freezing."

"Right, hold on to me," he said and she did so, the two of them basking in each other's warmth before he flashed through several single-handed seals, and teleporting them into an empty room in another part of the city, one that even in the dead of night was filled with noise.

As soon as they arrived in the room, a side door slid to the side revealing a beautiful woman in a kimono, she was all dressed up. Yugito knew what her profession was instantly: Geisha.

"Yuu-kun," the woman greeted Takeshi, it was his nickname out in this part of the world, the elder brother of the heir to the throne was rarely ever seen without an escort and rarely in common clothes, which was how he had easily been able to make this identity. This semi-false identiy that allowed him to walk around the city without worry about causing any dishonor to his father.

"Nice to see you again Yasumi-chan," he greeted back, then introduced Yugito to his friend and servant, Yasumi worked for him, the establishment that they were in was owned by his Yuu persona. He was a prince while at the same time was also a Yakuza Lord, "This lovely lady with me is Nii Yugito, our beloved daimyo's guest. I recently kidnapped her, do you have anything she could borrow? I promised her a night on the town."

"I think I can find something suitable," Yasumi replied, she motioned for Yugito to follow her, and assured her that everything would be alright, and that once she was ready she would see Yuu-kun again shortly.

Once the two women were gone, Yuu unsealed a scroll he had on him at all times stored in a storage tattoo he had on the web of his pinky and ring finger of his right hand. From it he unsealed some clothes, one that would make him recognizeable as the Yakuza Lord, Kairiki Yuu.

He changed from his anbu uniform to a black long sleeved shirt under a dark red two pocketed vest, he also wore black slacks, but wore a pair of dark red tabi socks and black geta sandals. He didn't need to visibly carry around any weapons as he had storage tattoos for that, all of them responding only to his chakra, or his blood and any chakra. He also kept his eye patch on, it was safer for everyone that way.

He waited in the lobby for his date for the night to arrive, and when she did all the men in the waiting louge stopped whatever they were doing to stare at Yugito, their jaws would have literally dropped it that were possible. She outshone Yasumi who was easily the most beautiful out of all the women at the respected establishment.

Yuu stood and walked purposefully up to her, the other men at first wanted to argue why the latest of them was getting such a beautiful girl as his date for the night until they realized exactly who he was. Over his shirt and vest he also had a black haori with the kanji for Kairiki written in red on the back of it.

"Such a beautiful flower," he said to her and offered his arm to her, "Shall we?"

"Hai," she replied softly, and allowed him to lead her out and away from the establishment, they were in the red light and entertainment district thus there was a lot that they could do. This district was always in a festive mood, it was like a festival that never ended all year round. There were a few vacationing shinobi amongst the people in the area, but they generally paid no mind to any of the yakuza in the area.

"You need a new name kitty cat," he told her as they walked the streets that were filled with life that night, "Do you have any suggestions?"

"I can't think of any at the moment," she said.

"How about Yuri," he suggested.

"Lily?" she said, not understanding why that flower of all flowers.

"My grandmother was named that," Yuu shared, "So I thought, why not. I either call you kitty cat or flower anyway."

"Yuri it is then," she said agreeably.

"Well then Yuri-chan," Yuu said, "Where would you like to go?"

"Anywhere's fine I guess," she said, and so they let their feet take them wherever around the district.

Midway through the night a group of men blocked their path, but were not hostile in any way, Yugito didn't know what to do in such a situation.

"Do you lot really have to disturb me while I'm on a date?" Yuu said to the men, all of whom wore similar haori as he did.

"Sorry Yuu-sama," they said, "Its just that we you haven't been here in a while. We were surprised, so we came to greet you. Our apologies for interupting your time with this lovely lady."

"Forgiven," Yuu said, "Might I introduce you lot to Yuri-chan," she bowed her head somewhat in greeting, "Yuri-chan, these upstanding gentlemen are some of my subordinates, proud members of the Kairiki family."

"Nice to meet you," she said to them, then tugged on Yuu's sleeve a bit to get his undivided attention.

"Hmm?" Yuu said, turning his head to face her.

"I'm a little hungry," she said, and smiled a little coyly, "Could we get something to eat?"

"Sure," Yuu said, but before he could lead the way to some restaurant, his men took up positions around them, and acted like some kind of escort for them, to one of the restaurants that the Kairiki family owned. They also did all the ordering, and everything leaving Yuu and Yuri to themselves in his private booth.

"They're a likeable sort," Yuri said, "They're rather devoted to you aren't they."

"Yes they are," Yuu said, enjoying her company.

"How did you go about getting them as your subordinates?" she asked in curiosity, she had totally forgotten that she was a kunoichi already.

"Ah well, I met each man differently as I was growing up," he shared with her, "I saved one man from being executed and somehow managed to scounge up enough evidence to wipe his record clean, another man I helped during some hard times, there's quite a number of different stories. Each man's initial meeting with me different. They then began recruiting on their own, finding honorable men among the riff raff and rotten scoundrels of the city and country. I have a few nuke-nin in my ranks. All my subordinates proud to call me Boss or Yuu-sama."

"Do they know about your double life?" she asked.

"My captains know about it," he admitted to her, "Not all of them know. It wouldn't do them any good to know about my other lives. It wouldn't harm my career or anything, it would just be a big bother to the way I've gotten things to work."

"Oh," she said.

"Why don't you tell me more about yourself," he suggested, "I know very little about you, not counting what you've already shared with me."

"Well..." she began to share some more bits about her life, and they spend the rest of the night talking, and when the food arrived eating.

It was a long and enjoyable night, but as it came to a close, they dressed back up as what they wore before their little adventure, and Takeshi whisked his kidnapped princess back to her room in the castle.

Yugito didn't see Takeshi again until the end of her first week there, she wanted to go out into the city with him again. He wasn't all that happy and relaxed as he usually was when around her the next time they saw each other. He was actually rather beat up and covered in bandages.

"Are you alright? What happened to you?" she immediately went into worry mode for him at seeing him in such a sorry state.

"Got caught trying to get to you last night," he admitted, "Hehe, the old man was really pissed off about it and beat the crap outta me. Hehe. Looks like we're both stuck in the castle for the time being."

"Well, I guess we could both stay in my room," she suggested a little too playfully.

"NO!" he said a tad bit too forcefully, "I mean no, sorry I yelled. Such an action would not prove to be wise for both our sakes at this time. Maybe we should stick to this garden hmm?"

"I...I suppose, sorry, I wasn't thinking," she said, "I mean.."

"Forget about it," he said dismissively, "I'm sorry that I've been gone so long, I was sent out on a mission, overseeing some new construction project for my old man."

"Who is your old man exactly?" she asked him out of curiosity, as she ran her fingers through his hair causing him to relax some.

"My old man? Well, he's the Yondaime Mizukage, or at least he was until he stepped down," Takeshi said, "Hehe, the old man's the only leader I know that loves paperwork, he orders me around every now and then to do stuff that my younger brother is supposed to be doing."

"Oh," she said a little disappointed that he didn't share anything more about his father with her, "Why's your brother in Konoha then, if he should be here?"

"He's looking after the youngest member of our family over there," Takeshi said, "Though I've heard that he recently got himself into some bloodline trouble recently, he's gone missing for a while, but we're supposed to see him at the Exam finals, if we end up going at all anyway."

"Are you going?" she asked him.

"Probably not in person," Takeshi said, "I've got duties, I'll probably send a clone unless I'm assigned to the daimyo escort team which is highly unlikely."

"Why's that? You're commander aren't you," she said.

"Well, yeah, but I'm in-charge of all of Anbu, the only one higher than me are my parents," he said, which was the truth, "I've got a department to run, although being here with you sure beats all that paperwork. Hehe."

"I can't believe you're ditching your duties to spend time with me," she said, a bit flattered though a little bit annoyed about his dereliction of duty.

"Its alright," Takeshi tried to reassure her, but she told him that he had better return to his duties by dinner time, or else she wouldn't speak with him for neglecting his duty to his village.

They went out for another date in the entertainment district of the city two nights before she was scheduled to be returned to her village. It was during that date of getting to know each other more that some disturbing news was brought to Takeshi's attention.

Some of his people who had actually come from Kaminari no Kuni informed him secretly that Kumo was planning to infiltrate Mizu to get their remaining jounin, the picture that had been painted of her treatment and her behavior was not a nice one. Kumo was sending in an assassination team, they were going to be sending the best of the best, or rather the team was already on its way. Such an action if caught by the proper authorities would make future relations between the two countries not that good.

What the other Kumo-nin, with a slightly insane mind had told his superiors was that they were treated far worse than all the bed time stories claimed, and that Kiri had tried to brainwash him and seemed to have succeeded with Yugito turning her into their sleeper agent. They couldn't afford such a powerful one to return to their village in the guise of diplomacy of whatever, thus the sending of the team to get rid of her.

"It looks like we'll have to cut your stay with us short," Yuu told his lovely date, "You'll be needing to return to Kaminari sooner than planned."

"What do you mean? Why'd you bring that up so suddenly?" Yuri asked him, "Was it what that subordinate of yours said?"

"Yes," Yuu said, "Your life has just been put in real danger, and not from Mizu. I'm sorry."

"Why?" she asked, her happy mood had fallen away at such news.

"Why am I sorry?" he said, "Because it looks like you'll be leaving sooner than planned, and I'll have to speak with the old man about this. He doesn't exactly know the extent of my connections and spy network, yes I have one of those," he stood up and prepared to get changed, "I need to return you to your room in order for me to get permission to take you out of the country."

"What are you saying? Who's after me? And why'd you say Kaminari and not Kumo?" she asked.

"Because...unfortunately, Kumo is after your head," he told her resignedly, "I have been informed that your fellow jounin couldn't handle being treated in the same manner as you were, and had informed the Raikage that we have brainwashed you into becoming a sleeper agent for Kiri."

"That's absurd! I'm loyal to my village!" she exclaimed reverting into kunoichi mode, "I would never betray my village! I'm the Raikage's niece for crying out loud!"

"Well someone in your village thinks otherwise," he said, "Look I really didn't want something like this to happen. Maybe we should have just sent you on your way back to Kumo as soon as we got the two of you. Not that I regret all the time I've spent with you."

"I feel the same in a way," she admitted, "So you'll return me to my room then what?"

"Then I get permission to bring you to Kaminari's capital," he said, "If I don't get permission...well...I'll just kidnap you for real this time. I'd like to get you out of here before your killers arrive."

"I'd like that too, I'm rather attached to my life," she said, a few minutes later she let him carry her back to the castle and to her room where he left her.

Takeshi walked into his father's study where he knew his old man was most likely at since his mother was busy in Kiri dealing with whatever Kages dealt with, including his duties as Anbu Commander.

"I know about it already," Ryoku informed his son before said son could open his mouth to speak, "You may leave as soon as possible, it will not be reflected in your records as a mission. I will give you a head start of one day to get out of Mizu, after which I shall be having your mother send out a oi-nin after your ass. Your identity as Anbu Commander will not be compromised, but your rank of Commander will."

"Are you saying that you'll have all bounty books and bingo books updated to include me in my Anbu Commander armor and mask?" Takeshi incredulously asked his father.

"Yes," Ryoku said, "You, as Anbu Commander, shall be relieved of your position once you return to the village. We musn't show favoritism, but of course you will retain your rank of jounin once relieved of such a duty."

"Ok...thanks dad," Takeshi said and bowed to his father and turned to leave.

"Do not tell her what I have told you," Ryoku told his son, "By the time you reach Kumo, they will know of your treachery, you must wear your mask at all times during this _mission_. I wish you luck my son."

"Thanks again father," Takeshi said before closing the door of his father's study and sprinted to Yugito's room.

With his son out of the room Ryoku popped on over to Kirigakure no Sato and informed his wife of what had just happeend and what he wanted to happen. She wasn't really all gung ho for it, but she supposed he knew what was best, even though he was manipulating his own family for the greater good.

While their son wore the mask of Anbu Commander of Kiri, the oi-nin would not relent in his pursuit they would treat him as just another nuke-nin. Ryoku would repress any knowledge of the identity of the Anbu Commander from the minds of those that knew it. The operation must look as authentic as possible and it would be a kind of test for Takeshi himself to prove his worth and skill.

"*"

It was rather surprising for Yugito when Takeshi arrived in her room in a swirl of mist wearing his Anbu gear complete with mask. He looked about ready for a SS-rank mission. She was even more surprised that he was going to be going against his country's wishes, as he informed her that his daimyo had ordered him to simply protect her instead of get her completely out of danger's path.

While she had tried to protest when he decided to carry her all the way to the closest port, she knew that arguing with him about it was useless since he told her that they would be able to move faster and he did know the terrain of Mizu better than she did, what with him having lived there all his life.

They reached the port city within the span of two days of running non-stop, Yugito ate, drank, and rested, while Takeshi simply ran, dodging patrols, bounty hunters, and whatever else they neared, all the while running on his magical and chakra reserves to keep him alive. It was a trick his father had taught him and his brother back when he trained them in their youths.

"We'll rest for a while here," Takeshi told Yugito, "I own an inn here, though its not as posh as some of the places that some other underworld lords own. I hope that it will be to your liking."

"What choice have I," she commented blandly.

They walked in plain sight, with him with his Yuu look on, very few knew his face as jounin or son of a kage and daimyo to figure out who he was in his plain looking self, all anyone would recognize him as was Kairiki Yuu.

When they reached the inn that he spoke of, Yugito found that it was of moderate condition and was the kind of place that traveling merchants with few wares or nuke-nin or even bounty hunters would regularly stay at. Once they got inside the two of them were led to one of the better rooms.

"We'll rest here for now, dinner will be brought up so don't bother leaving," Yuu told her, "My subordinates will probably bring in some clothes for you to wear while we make our way to Kaminari's capital. I need you to play the part of Yuri, or become Yuri while we do this."

"I can do that, especially since you are now Yuu-kun," she said slipping into her more demure persona, a form that was beginning to become known as the lady friend of Kairiki Yuu.

Sometime in the evening while they were having dinner, some of the local Kairiki geisha came up to the room, they brought with them some kimonos for Yuri's use, as well as some essentials that Yuu hadn't really thought about himself. He thanked them and they told him they were happy to help. They left the couple alone once their delivery was delivered with all manner of description of the things they had brought.

The pair slept that night in the same bed, but didn't do anything naughty like Yuri had expected of her partner in crime. In the morning she was introduced to a pair of girls that worked at the inn in charge of cleaning the rooms, they were to be her guides and her guards during their stay in the port city. This left Yuri free to walk around the area and allowed Yuu to go about his business in the place, like find them a way across the sea to make their way to Kaminari.

Yuri spent the rest of the day on a tour of the city, the salty sea air was a welcome smell to her as she had been journying non-stop in the arms of a man, through misty woods, swamps, and other such places. There was also the slight lingering smell of blood that she didn't really enjoy, even though her profession called for her to often times encounter such a scent. The two girls were named Ami and Yumi, they both had purple hair, cute round faces, and were around twelve years old, while they were dressed in some loose fitting kimonos, they had a feel to them that made Yuri believe that they had some training in the martial arts.

She didn't question then and simply allowed them to lead her around the place, she tried to memorize the lay of the land for future use, or in case she got separated from the pair. She caught glimpses of Yuu some of the time in different places, she saw her talk to many different people, but the two girls didn't let her stay long enough for her to walk over to him. She understood that whatever he was doing must have been very important to him.

They stayed in the port city for around a week, mostly due to Yuu having very little luck in finding a ship that was willing to take the two of them. The reason for the reluctance was that these were ship masters that had clean records and didn't want them tarnished, in case they were caught, for brining over people with problems looming over their heads. Yuu didn't say that he was going on the journey only that a certain wanted man and his travelling companion wanted to be shipped off to Kaminari.

When he finally found a ship willing to take him in his masked form, it was of a cargo ship one that worked for the now Namikaze Shipping Industries, a business run by the Daimyo of Nami no Kuni, and the reason why they, whose record was still a bit spotless, was all because of Yuu's relationship with said ruler, in fact that man he spoke to was Namikaze Fuhen who was visiting with for some business deals.

While on the ship Yuri was allowed to walk about on the deck, while Yuu kept to himself in their shared quarters as he needed to keep up appearances of being a wanted man. The sailors were sure to blab on his presence, they were sure not to mention anything else about him or bother him during the trip. They also mostly left Yuri alone while she was with them on their ship, it wouldn't do to suddenly mess with the woman whom they knew was getting friendlier with Kairiki Yuu.

She made sure that while she was playing the role of Yuri she didn't practice any outward signs of her knowledge of chakra, the point of pretending to be someone else was not to make it known that she was a kunoichi, it was like an infiltration mission of a sort. She was a civilian, or that was what she was supposed to be, one that had a relationship with one of the underworld's most powerful men.

Nothing really happened during their trip across the sea, she didn't know that such trips usually took longer but with the help of Takeshi's magic the ship moved faster than it was supposed to.

They stayed at an inn in the port town that the ship docked at, the inn was owned by an ally of the Kairiki Family, they were a lesser known Family who held minimal control of the port town. They were trusted to keep their silence about Takeshi's stay there and his companion, all thanks to a letter that Takeshi had written as an introduction letter to be shown to any of his allies, and of course it was signed by himself but as Yuu.

The letter introduced him as a friend of the Kairiki Family and thus made him an extension of the Family, but not as important. The underworld would not be helping any of those that would seek out his bounty.

"Have you ever been to Dokiri Zenzan before?" Yuri asked Takeshi while they were packing for their trip to the capital of Kaminari, they had stayed in the town for three days, and in those days Takeshi managed to get them some horses, it would be foolish to travel the way of the shinobi in the country, and even shinobi sometimes forgot to look down, just as most people forget to look up for intruders, spies, or attackers.

"I've never been there to tell you the truth," Takeshi said, "Though my brother did when he was little, he told me about the place, who to talk to and what to say to them."

"Oh," she said, "So what are we going to do once there? Why there anyway? I still don't see what it will accomplish."

"We're, or rather, I'm going to be talking with someone in the royal palace," he told her, "I can't really tell you what about, but it should be enough to convince Kumo that you were not brainwashed and remain a loyal kunoichi of Kumo."

"If it affects me, then I deserve to know about it," she insisted, stopping in her helping him pack for the remainder of their journey ahead.

"It would be safer for all involved if you didn't know," he said, "I'm just looking out for you, since what I will be talking about has the potential to spark war between Mizu and Kaminari."

"B-but.." she tried to say something, but was interupted.

"It may also help make a bridge between our two countries," he said, "Though the possibility of my remaining as Anbu Commander will be slim."

"What does your rank in your village have to do with this?" she asked him.

"You'll know about it when it happens, and I hope you forgive me for it," he said as he placed his mask on his face, he had finished packing for the both of them, "It's time we depart, whether you have more questions or not."

They left soon after, riding on horseback all the way to the capital of Kaminari, avoiding Kumo Anbu patrols when they were near. Takeshi wasn't Anbu Commander for nothing after all. The Nibi, even away from Ryoku's presence, still did not make itself known, it was probably the close proximity with Takeshi, another favorite of the Shinigami himself, that kept the cat from getting out of the bag.

When they got to the capital, Takeshi took Yugito directly to the palace, and they were allowed entrance due to another letter that he had on his person, one that he had prepared while Yugito had been sleeping one night. It was sealed with his seal as a prince of Mizu. But it did not divulge his identity as said prince. With it he managed to obtain an appointment with the local daimyo, and also permitting Yugito to stay in the palace, gaining her own set of rooms to stay in similar to when she had stayed in Mizu's own royal castle.

"This will be the last time we see each other," Takeshi told Yugito before he was to meet with the Kaminari Daimyo, "Please forgive me for what I must do to keep you safe, and to make relations between our two countries better."

He walked off before she could say anything to him, not even goodbye, and even as she pursued him, forgetting that she was a kunoichi during those moments, she lost sight of him as he rounded a corner. She didn't know what he was capable of after all. He had simply teleported, since most palaces had seals in and on them that prevented any but those keyed into those seals from accessing their chakra for external use.

She rushed around the palace asking anyone she met along the way if they had seen her companion. No one she spoke to even recalled that she had arrived at the palace with anyone else. It was as if their memories of him had been erased or suppressed, which they were.

Takeshi removed his mask once he was alone with the Daimyo, he needed to speak as a prince of Mizu and not as the stand in Anbu Commander. The daimyo wasn't as shocked as he thought the man would be, and was even offered a seat before the man which he took.

"So tell me why you have come here, risking your ninja career in the process as well as your very life?" the daimyo asked him.

"My father knows of my being here as should my mother," Takeshi said, "While my father hasn't stated or ordered me to be here, I have a feeling that he would approve with my choice of coming to speak with you. I was planning on eventually doing it anyway."

"This reason being?" the daimyo asked.

"I have come to offer an alliance between our two countries," he told the ruler, "Long has there been animosity between our lands, or more specifically the shinobi branches of the two lands' armies. An alliance to better the state of the world. Mizu, and by association, Kiri, will cease any hostilities with Kaminari and Kumo if an alliance can be agreed upon."

"Wanting an allaince, is asking for peace between our two countries and our respective hidden villages," the daimyo said, "I am aware that Mizu, Kiri especially, has been holding a grudge against my country and soldiers due to the number of invasions made in the past, or invasion attempts. What is to stop your country from double crossing us to exact some revenge when we let our guards down?"

"A political marriage," he replied, "Since I am not designated as heir for the throne, I am offering myself for the part of Mizu."

"And of course the young lady that you are with would be the one you wish to be engaged to," the daimyo said, a perceptive man was he, "I recognized her the moment I laid eyes on her. Your companion is none other than the Nibi Jinchuuriki Nii Yugito, niece of the Raikage Ae and Kumo's other Jinchuuriki. I have met her before, I was also made aware by the elder council of Kumo that she was to be hunted down for betraying her village and her country."

"You're very perceptive for an old man," Takeshi said, "Yes, I was hoping that would be possible. It would make for a very convincing and symbolic marriage, the union between two countries. While I have nothing against any of your princesses, I've already spent a lot of time with Yugito, and let her in on many of my secrets."

"She already is in a way royalty, I'll admit to that, what with her family and clan being in the Kage business for many years," the daimyo said agreeably, he was silent for a few moments to think about what the younger man before him had offered, before speaking once again, "I will speak to my advisors on this matter as well as speak with Ae-dono about his niece. It seems to me that she was doing her job, in a sense, by bringing my country a potential ally. I will clear her name as it seems you also wanted of me. Do you have anything else to add?"'

"Yeah," he said as he donned his mask, "Keep Yugito-chan safe for me while I'm away, and don't reveal my identity to anyone. I came in as Krir's Anbu Commander and I am going to leave as such."

"I can do that, as a favor to you," the daimyo said, "Thank you for coming, and may the next time I see you not be shrouded in mystery."

"Yeah, thanks," Takeshi said as he teleported out of there not waiting for the daimyo to lead him out. He didn't dare visit Yugito for another farewell, as he doubted he would be able to leave her side if he did. Once he arrived on the roof of the palace, he began leaping his way to his Anbu career's end. Yugito caught a glimpse of him as he leapt over the outer wall of the palace, and was unable to do anything to stop him from leaving her. She believed that she wouldn't be seeing him again due to finding a guard looking through an updated bounty book and seeing him there, while no name was written his rank was as well as a picture o him in his mask.

A few days later she was summoned by the Daimyo who informed her that they would be heading for Kumo the next day to do two things, one was to clear her name and prove that she was and always had been a loyal kunoichi, as well as some private matters that might affect her. She didn't question the daimyo on his decision, but she did ask whether or not she would be part of his guard.

"I promised your escort that I would let nothing happen to you while you are with me, and I shall not go back on that promise," the daimyo informed her, "Therefore you shall be riding with me, not as a guard, but as a guest. I wish I could meet more Anbu Commanders, or even simple ninja with such initiative as he had."

"If I might ask, but what or how did he convince you of my loyalty to my village and country," she asked.

"You just asked, child," the daimyo said, "But I cannot answer, it may seem unfair to some of those involved whether or not I do. He cared about you, that much I am certain, so I hope you do forgive him in the future for what he has done."

She was unable to question the daimyo further as he sent her a look to go no further with her questions and simply follow him all the way to Kumo. Her arriving there with the daimyo saved her life as opposed to had she come as a member of his escort. No one really recognized her until she reached the Raikage and his guard, which consisted of his brother and his brother's other students.

Her status as a traitor was rescined since she had the confidence of the daimyo to back her up, and with her status and loyalty no longer being questioned she could finally go back to the life she had lived and known for so long, putting any thoughts of Takeshi at the back of her mind. It was several days later that she would find out that her escort, aka kidnapper, had been terminated from duty. His bounty was removed from any and all bingo and bounty books, which normally meant that he had been executed. She didn't know how to take the news which led to her training and going on missions more to distract her from what she did not want to think about.

#

Takeshi had been kicked out of Kiri's Anbu, his memebership there remained on his record though no information as to how high in the roster he had reached, memories of his having been the official Anbu Commander that had been labeled a nuke-nin were suppressed or erased in some cases by his father.

As he was walking on the water of one of the training lakes within the borders of the village he found himself flying face first into the water by something arriving out of seemingly nowhere. When he got back to his feet he realized that the new arrivals was none other than his own descendant, Naruto.

"So...where'd you come from?" Takeshi asked his descendant.

"From so far in the past, I'm wondering if I'm my own ancestor," Naruto replied, "Am I too late for the Chuunin Exams?"

"As far as I know, the Finals are the day after tomorrow," Takeshi told him.

"Oh, good," Naruto said, "I guess I best go home then."

"I believe you should," Takeshi said then noticed Naruto's new accessory, "Nice, a limiter."

"Yeah," Naruto said, "Some dude named Juushu gave it to me after I brought peace to a continent in the past that was not Elemental as far as I could tell. The weapons and armor were closer to some of the ones that Ryoku-jiji has in some of his picture books, the ones with knights and the like."

"Ah," Takeshi said, "Well, good luck with your finals bout. I'll be rooting for you even though I can't be there...I'm kind of grounded for going nuke-nin on Kiri for a girl."

"...see you then, Takeshi-jiji," Naruto said as he water walked back to Kiri to find himself a floo connected fireplace.


	62. Chapter 62

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter sixty-two**_

"You're late brat," Shiro informed his brother's descendant.

"I'm not late," Naruto argued, "I've still got the rest of today to relax. I've already gotten years of training in just one month."

"Yeah, yeah yeah," Shiro said, "Tou-san informed me of your little slip through time. Just not when and what you did. So what did you do?"

"Brought peace to a continent and probably had a hand in becoming a descendant of myself," Naruto replied.

"That's even freakier than what myself and Ni-san have ever done," Shiro said, "That's even weirder than having a kid in the past that one is unaware of," he then noticed the eye patch, "Where'd you get the limiter?"

"Rosuto Juushu," Naruto replied, "He just appeared after I did this really devastating kinjutsu on something that looked like all the bijuu combined."

"Oh," Shiro said, "Well, I'll inform Miko-chan about your return while you go off and do whatever you want."

"Kay," Naruto said as he skipped out of the house humming a happy tune, and summoning Manda in human form.

When they were a ways away from the Uzumaki lands, Manda decided to ask Naruto about the Chunin Exams.

"Since you weren't here for the first two parts, how are you so sure you're in the Finals? How do you even know about the finals?" Manda asked.

"I guess I obtained that information from my other personas," Naruto said, "But also because I participated in those parts."

"I don't recall anything like that," Manda told him.

"Of course you don't," Naruto said, "You are the you from a month ago, just as I am the me from a month ago. We need to leave in a while before the you from the now and the me from the now arrives."

"Ok," Manda said, no longer really caring about what was going to happen, seeing as whenever he dealt with Naruto things didn't really go as they normally would.

A liquid like portal appeared before the two of them out of the blue, it rippled in the same manner that a pond would if a pebble had been dropped into it. Naruto stepped through, followed by Manda. When they reached the otherside they were where they had been only a moment ago, but a month ago which was just in time for the Chunin Exams.

But before he could do that he had to report in to the Hokage with something substantial in the form of information.

"You're finally back," the Hokage said upon the blonde's entrance into his office, "Report."

"I got whisked off to another continent, our world is bigger than any of us were aware of," Naruto said, "My being what I am, and who I am, allowed me to survive the trip there and back again. While in that continent I fully unlocked most of my heritage and managed to gain some mastery over each one of them, but as I have not yet been able to fully master them I must wear this," he pointed at his eye patch, "To keep my powers in check."

"How are you so sure that it was another continent," the Hokage asked.

"Their manner of dress, their weapons, and the way they had war with one another," Naruto said, "There is also the fact that the entire continent was at war with itself..."

"You're leaving something out," the Hokage said, prompting Naruto to continue.

"I helped stop the war,," Naruto admitted.

"Glad to hear it," the Hokage said, "I expect to receive have the written report of your mission on my desk tomorrow before you join your team for the first part of the Chunin Exams, Kakashi has already submitted the forms for your two teammates while I have filed your own."

"You got it Hokage-jiji," Naruto said, "Do I leave now? I've got some stuff I want to do for the remainder of the day."

"I noticed before you entered that you had a man that looked eerily like a former student of mine," the old man said, "Would it be possible for some introductions?"

"Ok, just don't freak out," Naruto said as he opened the door to the office and waved Manda over to join the two of them.

Once inside Manda gave a slight bow in respect of the man that had trained Orochimaru and who had gained the title of God of Shinobi or the Professor.

"Jiji, I'd like you to meet Manda," Naruto said with a grin, "Manda, the Hokage."

"..." fwump, the Hokage fainted.

"At least he didn't freak out," Manda said just before all the Anbu in the room surrounded him with their swords.

"Cool it you guys," Naruto said as he pushed the Anbu away with something like the force but which was only some magic, and caused buckets of ice cold water to drop on their heads out of nowhere, he then went around the Hokage's desk to wake the old man up with an enervate spell.

"Naruto?" the old man asked, he wasn't sure if he had been dreaming about being introduced to a man that looked like Orochimaru and was named Manda, the same name as the Snake Boss.

"Yeah, and Jiji you weren't dreaming, and yes that is who you think it is," Naruto informed his Kage as he helped the man back into his seat, "And no, he is no threat to the village, and yes your guards are soaking wet due to me and will probably have to go on sick leave due to catching a cold."

"Do you have the.." the old man tried to say, but was interrupted.

"No I do not have even one of those eyes, and no I did not read your mind," Naruto said, "I'm just anticipating what you're most likely going to say or ask concerning what's happening in your office right now, and yes I will of course kick ass in the exam. Feel free to bet on me as well, a hefty sum on me, I'm sure that the Kairiki Family will accommodate you."

"That's a Yakuza family," the old man noted, "How do you, or why do you even know about them?"

"Takeshi-jiji has connections with them," Naruto stated, his words were not heard by the Anbu as they were busy trying to get themselves dry, and Manda was busy laughing at them in a non-maniacal way.

"Oh," the old man said, then turned his attention to Manda, "It was nice meeting you Manda-san, enjoy your stay in Konoha."

"I surely will Hokage-sama," Manda said, "And no I have no idea where your wayward student is. I've been too busy with Naruto-sama to care."

"Wha.." the Hokage tried to say.

"I already told you I know nothing about that guy," Manda said, "If that is all, we'll be taking our leave now."

The two of them left a rather perplexed Hokage and his drenched guard of Anbu behind. The Hokage would later send word to Kakashi that his MIA student had returned to the village earlier in the day and that he would be participating in the Exams.

Naruto and Manda visited Ichiraku Ramen to have some ramen, it was a long time since either of the two had some ramen, Manda because he didn't usually eat ramen, and Naruto because of when he had last been and where it was didn't have ramen no matter how he described the dish.

Both the Ichiraku people wondered where he had been all this time as they had seen the other members of him team minus him. He told them that he had been on a secret mission sounding all secretive and serious, though Manda holding back a smirk helped not make his explanation that believeable. It didn't really matter, he was with people that he cared about.

He ran into Konohamaru, or rather the kid ran into him, after his ramen. The kid was running away from some cat eared weirdo from Suna who was in the village with his team for the Exams. Allied village or not, Exam participants or not, no one bullied Konohamaru, or scared the kid, while Naruto was in the area.

While the kid hid behind Naruto, his little friends following suit, Naruto himself stood his ground. He saturated the area around him in his magic in preparation of any levitating that he might need to do, simple things like that.

"Get back here you brat! Apologize," the black clad kid demanded, "You bumped into me and I demand an apology, then I'll kick your ass since you're so weak."

"Kankurou, stop it," a blonde girl with her hair tied in a way that made her head look like some kind of spider, "We're here for the exams not to make trouble with some kid you bumped into."

"I didn't bump into the brat, I was minding my own business, sure I saw him running, but he could have swerved around me," Kankurou said.

The next thing the black clad Kankurou knew was that he was hanging upside down in front of his sister, younger brother who was hiding his presence, and Narurto and company.

"Hey! Get me down from here!" the black clad kid said.

"Kids are prone to not being all that aware of their surroundings especially when they're having fun with their friends," Naruto told him, "From what your sister said, you clearly are the one in the wrong and should be apologizing to the kid. Also, threatening the grandson of the Hokage was a really stupid thing to do. I'm Uzumaki Naruto by the way, and I know several people that would be ticked off to know that you bothered with a friend of mine."

"Kankurou," Gaara's seemingly emotionless voice filtered into the area as his form materialized as he got out from under his illusion, "Apologize."

While Gaara may no longer have the Ichibi sealed within him, he was still scary as hell. While he didn't indiscriminately kill people since his encounter with Tenma, that didn't mean that he was no longer prone to bouts of violence.

"I'm sorry," Kankurou whimpered in fear of any possible bodily harm his little brother could inflict upon his person for whatever wrong he had committed. He was dropped on the ground by Naruto who reeled back in his magic, and shooed the Konohamaru corps away to bug Haru in the Hyuuga compound.

The two older of the three siblings decided to leave while Gaara and Naruto had their kind of face off.

"How've you been these past few years?" Naruto asked his weaker comrade in bijuu ranks.

"Good," Gaara responded, "I thank you for helping me my friend. Maybe we could spar sometime. I wish to know where I stand against you."

"I wouldn't mind," Naruto said, "But it'll have to wait for either the second part of the exam, the finals, or after the exam itself. You willing to wait?"

"I am," Gaara said, "See you later, I have to make sure my siblings cause no more problems within your village."

"Alright," Naruto said, "See you."

The two former jinchuuriki then parted ways for the day.

"I guess, it looks like we'll have to cut our time together short, Manda," Naruto told his companion.

"Looks like it," Manda said, "I noticed that he was hiding something from you, but at the same time wanted to tell you something."

"Could you look into it? Sending a jinchuuriki, or one that was once one even though no one really knows about that, is something significant," Naruto said, "I'd rather we be prepared."

"Didn't your friends find anything?" Manda asked in hushed tones.

"No," Naruto said, "It seems to me that it was a good idea for us to have gone through this thing."

"I'll see what I can find," Manda said before vanishing back to his realm.

#

The next day Naruto and his team met up in the Academy after Sasuke decided to act all high and mighty and made sure that there was more competition than nescessary. Naruto didn't bother berating his housemate, it wouldn't have done them any good as it wasn't like Sasuke ever really listened to Naruto.

Kakashi shared with them something about the exam needing teamwork or something like that, but Naruto didn't bother listening to the man as it was clear he only had eyes for the Uchiha, the last true Uchiha. Naruto himself had more important things to take care of, like wondering when Manda would decide to visit with whatever information he had managed to gather so far.

As Team 7 entered the testing room, they were greeted with the sight of many genin who were all competition for the promotion to Chunin. Sure some of them were fellow Konoha-nin, but that didn't mean that they weren't enemies in this exam. Naruto couldn't afford to remain a genin forever, he had a feeling that if he did fail in the exams, he would be stuck as a genin for a very very long time, Tokubetsu or not. He didn't want to end up like that.

He leaned against a nearby wall as his _fellow_ rookies crowded around one another as if they hadn't seen each other recently. He dumbed down his presence as not to catch anyone's unwanted attention. But unluckily for him, Sasuke decided to ask a fellow genin, that had failed several times, for information on Naruto and two others. Sasuke had encountered Rock Lee of Team Gai and had heard about Naruto's encounter with the Suna team.

Naruto snatched away the nin-info card with his information on it from Yakushi Kabuto wanted to see first hand what information the older boy had on him, and his eyes went wide when there was more information than was publicly available, luckily he had a feeling that Kabuto hadn't really check on his inforamtion yet.

"I don't appreciate fellow Konoha-nin gathering information on comrades, and going so far as to gather classified information," Naruto growled at Kabuto, "I'm sure your old man and the Hokage would like to know where you got this information."

"Uhh, let's not get too hasty," Kabuto said, trying to weasel his way out of his current predicament, "If the information was classified then how do you know of it."

"If it is about me of course I would know, some of the inforamtion on your nin-info cards are also information I specifically requested to be kept private," Naruto informed his fellow Konoha-nin, "Hope that we don't have to fight each other during this competition, I don't like spies of any kind, or thieves."

There would have been some commotion about the nearly hostile interaction between the Konoha-nin, but it was stopped before it could really begin by the arrival of the Chunin proctors and Morino Ibiki. The man was known as someone not to be messed with.

All participants were ordered to sit, and all of them sat, and were all separated from their teams. Test papers were passed out, and the usual instructions were given out by Ibiki.

The Head of the Interrogation Unit of Konoha was informed earlier on to watch out for Naruto by the Hokage himself, to not underestimate Naruto's ability out of all the genin there that day. So he kept a close watch on Naruto, who actually looked bored. Apparently Ryokuken could be used even while not on the physical battlefield. The bored look managed to phyche out his opponent, in this case it was Ibiki, and at the same time made some of his simple actions look harmless. A sigh here, a yawn there, a rolling of the eyes at the attempts of some at cheating.

Ibiki didn't even notice when his answer sheet had been compromised as Naruto copied all the answers to the test from said sheet to his own. He also used some of Konoha's own secret code to write down a letter to Ibiki about his suspicions about Kabuto being some sort of spy, due to his being too privy to too much information for a normal genin.

When the first part of the exam finished Naruto actually slept through the tenth question making some participants question his seriousness in participating in the exam, some Konoha-nin thought that he was just there so that the Uchiha could go throgh with the exams. In truth Naruto really did grow bored not even half way through the exam. He'd even gone so far as to magically place kick me signs on the backs of all the Chunin present, even the ones that were among the genin.

He had grown that bored. He didn't even look like he had tried to cheat what with all the ways he moved in his sleep. He flopped on the desk that Ibiki was standing near at the front of the room at one point and had to be thrown back into his seat when he began to drool on the desk and on part of Ibiki's coat. He was probably the most intreresting out of all the genin, though Ibiki still couldn't figure out how he was not to be underestimated.

Anko was rather surprised that there were still a great number of genin that would be participating in the second part of the exams. There was to be not preparation she marched all the remaining teams to the Forest of Death. Naruto followed his team lazily, he looked even more bored than the Nara of the bunch, which was quite the feat. Shikamaru couldn't for the life of him figure out how Naruto could look and move so bored and apathetic while at the same time feel so dangerous.

They were told what they were expected to do in the Forest of Death, and given the forms to sign to make it so that the village was not responsible for any deaths that occurred within the forest's walls. As soon as the signal was sounded out, the teams rushed into the forest without a care for their allies in the form of other teams, even Naruto didn't want to chance screwing himself over by helping other teams. It was then that he and Sasuke came to an agreement. They would get to the tower while taking down as many potential compeitition as possible.

They had both been trained in a way by Shiro, a man that while not an active shinobi was well versed in the arts of battle. They'd leave any scrolls they managed to collect with Sakura while the two of them dealt with any of the teams they encountered on their way to the tower.

The first team they encountered was one that they didn't really even care to find out from what village they were from. They had a goal, a mission, an objective, and they accomplish it as quickly and swiftly as was possible. They did not hesitate in taking out the three man team who tried to use genjutsu on a teen with eyes that nullify illusion and a kid who's very heritage nullified illusions. Sakura was simply ordered by the two boys to stand still and not interferre.

Naruto had lost his innocence long ago, and Sasuke needed the experience to prepare for his future, or if he still planned on taking down his brother or whoever it was that was responsible for the Uchiha Massacre.

The two boys tore into each team that came across their path, Naruto even batted away the gust of wind that must have been sent to keep him away from his team. There was even that crossdresser that they encountered. So focused were the two genin on their task that they failed to realize that their opponent was not a mere genin but something more. Not that it mattered since Orochimaru revealed himself to them after managding to push the two boys back.

"Get out of our way or die," both boys said at exactly the same time, causing Orochimaru to actually question their sanity.

"I don't think so," the Hebi Sannin told them as he lauched his body at Sasuke intending to give him a kiss mark he wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon. He missed his mark by a long shot when he was struck from the side by Naruto, his fists having turned into solid diamond, literal solid diamond, it was a magical transformation, and it hurt the Sannin like hell.

When the Sannin was sent flying to the side and away from Sasuke, Naruto lauched his teammate in the man's direction just as Sasuke finished going through the seals of a Katon Jutsu which he sent roaring in the direction of the man. They two genin doubted that the man had been so easily defeated and thus renewed their attack, Sasuke by activating his doujutsu and scanning their surroundings for the man, and Naruto by uncovering his eye and turning one eye emerald green deactivating his magical constraints.

One boy prepared to cast an AOE genjutsu while the other boy flooded the area with his magic. This was a battle for survival, and neither one would let their opponent get away scott free. Orochimaru was too much of a potential threat to their promotion to Chunin and to more power.

Sakura was rooted to the spot, the sheer amount of killing intent that had flooded the semi-clearing was almost suffocating but luckily for her it was not all focused on her but among the three combatants of the battle. She gathered the strength to run and hide, and when she did she tried to become as small as humanly possible so as not to draw any attention to her inexperienced and somewhat defenseless self.

When the Sannin made his second attempt at branding the Uchiha he was met with not only the genjutsu that he had to fight tooth and nail against as it was a Sharingan caused genjutsu, but he also had to deal with the many different bladed weapons that were flung his way that also seemed to appear out of nowhere or the many branches and vines that tried to ensnare him. This all happened around the two genin that stood more or less perfectly still, their hands were the only parts of their bodies that looked to be doing any moving.

When the Sannin finally managed to dispell the genjutsu and gain some distance from the two genin, he found a dense barrier of a number of things surrounding him and keeping him from his prey.

'_Hijutsu: Gensou-tekina Doku no Hako_,' Naruto thought as he activated his technique, one which needed his victim somewhat trapped in a box, one preferably with some natural elements such as wood in it. With his chakra and magic pouring or connecting to the chakra of nature, Naruto was able to force flowers to blossom from the wooden elements and ground elements of the box, these flowers would then spew out gaseous clouds of halucinogenic poisons, ones that were to simulate what some rather deadly and annoying poisons could and would do to the body and mind of the victim. The effects were not permanent, but they were real enough to surely cause the victim a terrible lot of discomfort.

What made the technique dangerous was that while active anything that came into contact with the clouds of pollen, spores, and whatever, would be affected even the user. The technique had a time limit on it, it would last for only five minutes, or at least the spewing of the gas clouds would last that long. The flowers would remain until they eventually died like any other plant, but would not retain the abilty to spew their weapons of halucinogenic destruction.

"We gotta get Sakura and ourselves out of here before some gust of wind carries that cloud our way," Naruto said in a commanding voice.

Sasuke didn't argue, and they found their teammate at the same time as the flowers stopped spewing their wares and at the same time that Orochimaru proved that he was really good at escaping since even with all the false pain and suffering he was going through he still managed to extend his neck all the way beyond the box and gifted Sasuke with his own drug.

"Sakura run on ahead," Naruto ordered, "Stop for nothing until you are safely within the tower, I'll catch up with sleeping beauty later."

"Hai," Sakura said and bolted in the direction of the tower while Naruto sent Orochimaru's head back into the box and activated the technique a second time, which did wonder for the two opposing sides to make their escape, Orochimaru was prepare for the unusual attack and managed to shunshin his way out of harm's way while Naruto hefted Sasuke up and made a mad dash to the tower, not wanting to risk teleportation as he could hurt his baggage with the weird tattoo.

He quickly made his way to the tower catching up with Sakura in record time while sending a helluva lot of paint bombs all over the forest as he ran through with his housemate on his back. It would be a bit entertaining to see who arrived coverd in paint as he had a kage bushin rig the door into the tower with a lod of pranking material.

"Hiya Iruka-sensei!" Naruto greeted the chunin that was summoned as soon as the scrolls were opened, "I need you to take Sasuke here," he handed over his uncoscious teammate, "To the Hokage since Orochimaru gave him some sort of hickey. Please and thank you."

"Uhm.." Iruka didn't really process what had just transpired and simply moved on autopilot in search of the Hokage with an unconscious Uchiha in his arms, leaving Naruto and Sakura to figure out how to proceed. Luckily Naruto already knew what to do, which was to rest for the remainder of this portion of the exams, he did inform his remaining teammate of it too so that she could prepare for her face-off with whoever in the next part of the exam.

#

"Anyone that wishes to quit do so now or forever hold your..yes you in the back," Gekkou Hayate said, not once coughing for some reason, "Name."

"Yakushi Kabuto," the genin informed the proctor, "I fear that my life is more important than some promotion."

"Whatever," Hayate said and dismissed the genin that he had been warned by Ibiki to watch out for, "Anyone else?"

Sakura actually had the gall to begin to raise her hand, but glares shot by both her boys got her to stay in the competition.

"No one? Good," Hayate said, "Wait on the platforms for your names to be called, I've already explained what happens here, so good luck and hopefully no one has to die."

A machine on one of the walls was used to randomly select who got to fight who. The first names that appeared were Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi. Both combatants walked down to the arean floor where they would face off in semi-mortal combat.

"I would prefer it if no one had to die," Hayate said, "But since this is the replacement for war...well...winning is by any form of incapacitation and if I call the match. If I say its over, it is over. Understand?"

"Hai," the two genin replied as they got into their fighting stances. Sasuke had been given a seal over his curse seal which allowed him to use his chakra freely without harming himself, or some other such nonsense as he saw the warnings. Power was power, and those who chose not to use it were fools. He was an avenger through and through, and if his mother couldn't accept that then he would still trudge on the path of an avenger.

"Begin!" Hayate shouted as he jumped away from the two combatants, just in case they suddenly unleashed some rather destructive opening moves, which they didn't.

Each of the two combatants ended up watching one another, trying to guage each other, trying to figure out how to attack. Strengths and weaknesses based on appearances were being measured. It was a waiting game until someone decided to make the first move.

Sasuke wasn't known for his patience therefore it wasn't surprising that he decided to make the first move, there was also the bit in him that wanted to showcase his abilities even to such a small audience. Surely he could sway someone into believing that he had what it took to become a chunin already.

He struck out as fast as he could, layering the arena in a sharingan induced illusion, something that he had learned from his step-father, not that he would ever inform Shiro about that little tidbit. The illusion was subtle and would only be affecting his opponent's spatial awareness and ability to properly guage distances. The illusion was performed within the blink of an eye, or more precisely just after he activated his doujutsu. It was his quickest activation yet, and it allowed himself a small triumph in that his opponent wasn't aware that he had done something thinking that Uchiha illusions required direct eye contact.

With the illusion in place, Sasuke's hands flashed quickly through some hand seals as he ran at his opponent, Yoroi believed that Sasuke was planning on lauching a close range Katon Jutsu, and so prepared to intercept the boy and utilize his chakra absorption technique. As he prepared to engage Sasuke in close range combat, he along with the audience, were surprised when Sasuke stopped running when he was close to his opponent flipped upside down, outstreched one hand, and spun in place using said hand while the other guided a flamethrower like flame out of his mouth around him.

It was only through quick thinking and honed reflexes that Yoroi had managed to get away nearly unscathed, though a part of his clothing had been scorched by the blast. He didn't give Sasuke time to recover from using such a move, and simply went in for a crippling attack, hoping to catch the Uchiha off guard. It was thanks to the illusion placed over the arena that Yoroi missed his goal, and Sasuke landed a solid hit on the side of his opponent's body. He followed up his elbow bash with a reverse spin kick which sent his opponent cartwheeling, unintentionally, to one of the walls of the arena.

Just like his own opponent Sasuke didn't let his foe have anytime to recouperate from the attack, no breathing room could be allowed. So he threw several kunai and shuriken at the man and flashed through another set of hand seals. By the time he was ready, he blew out several small balls of flame at his enemy.

Yoroi had used chakra to lessen the impact of the blows as well as his impact on the wall, he used the time that he looked a bit prone to rest from the beating he had just received moments before. He needed Sasuke to think that he had the upper hand, when in truth it was all a ploy. As soon as the projectiles were flung he pretended to clumsily get out of their path, some managed to graze him, but that was more due to the genjutsu layered over the arena that he was still unaware of being there than anything else.

As soon as the fireballs had been spat out, Yoroi used the shunshin no jutsu to appear right behind Sasuke whose view of his opponent had been obscured by his own attack. The Boy was waiting for the aftermath, the feeling of success at besting a clearly more experienced opponent. A tap on his shoulder was not something he had been expecting, nor was the punch in the face that sent him flying against the wall right beside where his opponent had slammed several moments prior.

It hurt, it stung, it was a general pain in the head. Sasuke didn't like the feeling of losing, or getting hurt for that matter. It was not something he could stomach. He needed to get better, he didn't want to get kicked out of the competition when he was sure that Naruto would somehow find a way to move to the finals.

He rose from his prone position and decided that he had wasted enough chakra and made a mad dash for his opponent, ending up with his neck being somewhat strangled, his oxygen supply running low, and his chakra was being drained even more than his techniques and eyes had been using. As soon as he noticed the drain in his chakra he shut off his eyes, thinking to lessen the drain, but found that nothing that he did helped.

He realized what was going on when he was almost out of useable chakra, he was on the brink of losing when he got an idea. He knew it was going to hurt, but he was a shinobi which meant that he had to do anything to accomplish the objective. To complete the mission. So without much more hesitation he swung his leg up with what remained of his strength and smashed his leg or foot, he couldn't remember after, right into Yoroi's family jewels.

The absorption technique was canceled as Yoroi crumpled to the ground allowing Sasuke some time to get his bearings and breathing back to normal. Hayate was in too much shock to do anything, so Sasuke decided to give the man something to keel over and die about, or at least proclaim him the wiinner.

He proceeded to play soccer with his opponent's balls. Using miniscule amounts of chakra to add more power to his kicks.

"Winner Uchiha Sasuke!" Hayate finally shouted as he held back the winner with all his strength, helping him were some of the other males in the audience as the torture had been too much for any of them, and Sasuke looked to have been enjoying the beating far too much to Kakashi's liking.

As soon as the match was called Yoroi was rushed to the Konoha General Hospital's Intensive Care Unit Pervert Ward, the place usually reserved for Women's Side of the Hotsprings or Baths beatings. Jiraiya of the Sennin had a bed reserved for him in-case he ever got caught in the village peeping.

When all had recovered due to the pain inducing sight, the second pair of fighters were randomly selected by the machine. The names that appeared were those of Aburame Shino and Zaku Abumi. Both combatants walked down to the arena floor for their match. Hayate started the match, and jumped away from the two combatants.

Shino's hive was more than enough to nearly drain the Oto-genin dry of chakra while also causing his special arms to burst due to the built up pressure within them that were used to make his air cannons work. It wasn't a pretty sight and the medics had to work fast if they were to reattach the genin's arms as well as salvage his ninja career.

Sabaku no Kankuro and Tsurugi Misumi went next, and unfortunately the flexible genin got too cocky and the puppet user decided to teach the genin a rather permanent lesson by impaling him with numerous bladed objects. The medics were rather stressed by this time as they raced to the hospital's ICU to see if they could at least save the genin's life, sure he'd be permanently left bedridden but at least he'd still be alive and his bloodline would still be salvageable.

Both Team Kakashi's and Team Asuma's girls knocked each other out with dual blows to the head with all their strength, it was rather pathetic considering that one of the two girls was of a shinobi clan, the other had the excuse of being the first in her pink haired family to be one of the military.

Too bad Nanashi Tenten didn't know how to use chakra strings, cause if she did, some measly Fuuton jutsu would not have been a problem. She lost in a rather humiliating and back aching way. She had a whole year of experience to have figured out more things to do than simply fling sharp and pointy things at her opponent, but instead of evolving she stuck to what worked.

"Will someone get Nara Shikamaru down here?" Hayate said impatiently as he knew that Nara men tend to take their time with things, or simply refuse to move at all, and suffice to say Naruto had to literally throw Shikamaru off of the balcony as the genin had actually fallen asleep standing up and with his eyes wide open.

"You know the rules," Hayate said, "So...BEGIN!" he somehow managed to perform a big head jutsu, the kind that Umino Iruka mostly used to silence his class of academy students, it was kinjutsu, one that Naruto had no intention of learning. Hayate performed the jutsu accidentally just to make sure that the Nara would not fall back asleep even though his body hurt all over from his rolling fall.

Due to his wanting to end the fight as fast as possible to get more time for sleeping and possibly cloud gazing, Shikamaru had his shadow zip and connect with his opponent's shadow as soon as their fight began. It connected and he didn't bother voicing his success. While he may not have much love for battle, he only joined the academy to stop his mother from nagging him, as well as partially to make his old man somewhat proud.

To end the fight he had walked half way, his opponent copying his motions and meeting him half way. He had a feeling that someone might kill him after his fight was over, but it could be worth it. He leaned forward, and everyone present there knew that something monumental was going to happen.

He smashed his lips against his opponent's and disengaged his family jutsu, he was rather surprised when the girl he was lip locked with didn't disengage his distraction technique. He was glad for that fact, but it actually did seem to be a worthy enough reason to not be lazy for once. He didn't want the girl to kill him if he stopped what he was doing, though the proctor was wondering what the heck was going on. The world around the two _combatants_ seemed to vanish as their lip locked situation evolved into a full blown make-out session in the middle of the arena floor.

There actually was a reason for the Nara being such a lazy clan, the men anyway. It was a rather well kept unintentional secret. Shikamaru didn't really know it at the time, but he had stumbled upon a rather secret technique. His father had accidentally left out one of their clan's kinjutsu scrolls, and a young Shikamaru just so happened to be bored enough to read through the thing and master it without any practice. His first testing of the thing was the moment he placed two fingers at the lower back of his opponent's neck and channeled a certain amount of chakra to tenketsu and pressure points found there.

The amount was so miniscule, but the effect was that the girl had been knocked unconscious due to the sheer bliss that she felt all thanks to the technique.

"Proctor?" Shikamaru said to get the attention fo the proctor, as the medics rushed in hoping for something simple to deal with, the girl was unresponsive to anything they did to try and wake her and so off to the ICU she went, they would later consult with the Nara clan about her condition and what Shikamaru did.

"Uh...oh...Winner Nara Shikamaru..." Hayate said unenthusiastically as he really didn't know how to react to what had happened, '_I suppose that was a battle...of a sort...damn...I guess repressing stuff makes his clan like that...damn..._'

Shikamaru was actually surprised that when he got up to the balcony where his teammates were Yamanaka Ino didn't kick his ass for what he did, she actually just stared at him, like most of the people on the balcony with him. So he took that as his cue to lean against the wall and fall asleep.

With eight genin remaining the machine on the wall flashed through their names with record speed, until the thing landed on Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba, both of whom had the presence of mind to hop down into the arena, both landing on all fours like some beast, and standing up after a second or two from that position.

"I'm a bundle of energy and I'm ready to explode," Naruto said before his opponent or the proctor could say anything, "I'm giving you one chance, Kiba, to surrender."

"I should be the one telling you that, deadlast," Kiba taunted back, "I think I'll let Akamaru sit this bout out, just to give you a handicap."

"Suit yourself," Naruto said, and got into an opening stance of the Ryokuken, only the Hokage recognized the style and grew a bit pale, even though he was well aware of Naruto's mastery of several things including that style, to think that he would use it against Kiba, a fellow genin, was a bit of an over the top thing.

"Whatever deadlast," Kiba said, overconfident as was befitting his personality, "Get ready to kiss my ass."

"I don't swing that way," Naruto stated apathetically.

"I'm not gay!" Kiba exclaimed, "I'll kick your ass for that insult!"

"I'm not into bondage either," Naruto stated.

"*"

Up in the balcony the jounin and genin were wondering what was happening, and what the heck Naruto's stance was. They were wondering why Naruto wasn't taking his opponent seriously, looking bored even, as if he didn't care for the outcome of the fight.

"What is your student doing Kakashi?" Kurenai demanded of the cyclops, "He's just standing there without a care in the world. I seriously doubt that he can actually handle Kiba."

"I'll agree with Kurenai there," Asuma chimed in.

They looked to Gai, their fellow jounin and Kakashi's rival. The man looked to be in deep thought as if trying to remember some vague memory from ages long past, a story perhaps of a taijutsu style that was so fearsome that only a select few were ever said to have mastered or even learned it.

"Gai? What's wrong?" Kakashi asked his long time eternal rival out of concern, uncharacteristically as that seemed.

Upon realizing what the style Naruto was using could be, the spandex wearing man paled to the extreme, he was as white as a sheet, and his students crowded around him and looked a tad bit worried. They wondered what was wrong, though Neji had a feeling he knew, as he was privy to some secrets of the Uzumaki household.

"Neji?" Gai spoke to his white eyed student.

"Hai Gai-sensei," Neji said knowing what his sensei was trying to convey, "It is as you fear, though I am not aware as to what extent Naruto will go with it."

"How much of it does he know?" Gai asked his student, while the others listened in on the Hyuuga's reply.

"I have caught glimpses of his spars in the past with Haru-sama," Neji replied, "Haru-sama is a master of the style, but chooses not to use it, while Naruto...I'm not sure since as I said I only caught glimpses."

"What are you talking about Gai?" Kakashi asked, not liking being out of the loop.

"Shouldn't you know?" Gai asked his rival, "He is your student after all."

The jounin noticed that Gai wasn't shouting half the things he was saying, or even mentioning the words eternal or youth, they figured that something must really be bothering the man.

"Naruto-san has entered into an opening stance of a style that at one point in time had been feared by Hi no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni, it was also something of a story told to children of taijutsu favoring clans in the past," the taijutsu expert told them, "I shudder to think how I would fair against it used to its full. For a user may only be one of two things, either a master or a student, either it is used in full or not used at all."

"That doesn't really make any Gai-san," Ino said, she and Sakura had regained consciousness after their fight, "Its like saying that while fighting, someone is not fighting..or something like that."

"How would we be able to tell if he's a master or an amateur?" Sakura asked.

"You'll just have to see for yourselves," Gai said, "I'm no expert when it comes to that style, though if we had a Kiri-nin with us or an older Hyuuga, we might get a clue."

"*"

Down in the arena Kiba was beginning to fume at Naruto's contied form of apathy, and physical signs of boredom. The ninken user began to believe that Naruto was so stupid to think that it was a time for posteuring, and for acting tough when they should be taking the thing seriously.

"Proctor start the match, I want to wipe the floor with this blonde haired teme," Kiba said loud enough for the proctor to hear.

"Fine," Hayate said as he walked away from the two combatants, "FIGHT!"

Kiba unleashed a spinning attack that made him look like a tornado of teeth and claws, he barreled his way towards Naruto's seemingly unconcerned form. What he didn't know was that Naruto was aware of everything.

At the last moment, as the attack was about to hit, Naruto vanished, a nano-second later he stood a few feet away from his original position still looking bored, while Kiba skidded across the ground before slamming into a wall hard.

The spectators were wondering what had just happened, and the Hokage knew that without a doubt, Naruto had mastered the style, since mastering it was using it in the user's own unique way. With Naruto, instead of moving quite fast to dodge or make a hit, he slowed time down to a crawl which made him faster not physically but faster than others in terms of the flow of time.

He had slammed his fists and feet against Kiba's body multiple times in quick succession and when he was done delivering such punishment he spun his opponent around to make him spin and roll into the ground before smacking against the wall.

"What..the hell..was...that..." Kiba was breathing heavily due to a mixture of pain and pain, he decided that he had better get serious himself since Naruto had managed to get in a lucky shot, however that was achieved, he gathered air into his lungs to allow him to belt out an ,"Akamaru!"

The little dog, or puppy, ran with chakra enhanced speed to his partner's side and swallowed an offered soldier pill to boost his power. Turning red, the little puppy and his partner crouched low and performed one of their clan's specialized jutsu, a transformation technique of some special sort wherein Akamaru turned into a copy of Kiba. The two of them didn't waste anytime in attacking. Two tornados of teeth and claws zoomed Naruto's way.

"Oh well," Naruto said, then created some clones that spread out around the arena.

The spectators wondered why he had done that, and they found out why when Naruto decided to roundhouse kick the two Kibas two separate ways. It was a bastardized form of pinball. Kiba was sent this way and that way, and when the two of them were tired enough and dizzy enough, Naruto decided to end their suffering.

'_Imperio_' Naruto intoned in his mind as he pointed a finger at the dazed Kiba, he could tell the real one from the fake.

Kiba suddenly felt a calm sensation seize him, he had never actually experienced something like that sensation before, nor had he ever had his mind directly intruded upon before thus did not know that something wrong was happening.

'_Say you surrender and..._' Naruto gave some telepathic orders to Kiba who complied with each thing Naruto said.

"Proctor I surrender and I am proud to admit that I am in fact gay," Kiba said, his eyes had gained a semi-glazed look that went unnoticed by most present save for the jounin themselves, most of them, and the Hokage, "I first realized I was gay when I saw Rock Lee naked in the hotspring some time ago, I'd love to be his bitch anyday."

Needless to say the proctor didn't have anythign to add, and Naruto mentally requested a purging of the images that were produced in his mind after giving out his orders to Kiba, Ryoku was happy to comply with the request as it did not interferre with the exams.

The Alpha Mutt, when he got back to his senses and was no longer influenced by Naruto's spell, denied everything that he had previously said. Though he was ever so glad that he had been rejected by Rock Lee, and people though that when he cried he cried about the rejection and not because no one believed that he wasn't in fact gay. He was just too macho to be straight.

From them on he vowed vengeance on Naruto. He rescined on the vow when Naruto began to raise a finger in his direction.

Next up were the two Hyuuga that danced a beautiful dance of death, and since Neji had a way to win against his younger cousin, he used the most debilitating attack in his arsenal, he stepped back and shouted while pointing behind Hinata, "Hinata! Look! It's Haru-sama!"

The girl froze up and panicked, "Where!" she spun around on her heel and Neji knocked her out with but a single tap, somethin he learned from said clan head.

Neji snickered a bit before picking up his cousin and carrying her up to the balcony where she could reasonably dream her little dreams about her crush.

Gai informed his comrades that Sabaku no Gaara was not using the same style as Naruto, the genin must have really had just that naturally neutral face on him, as far as they knew anyway. Gaara did not try to destroy Rock Lee's career only shoove lots and lots of sand in places that were not meant for sand to be shoved into, while informing Lee that the sand would continue to go into those places if he did not surrender. It was a humiliating way to be defeated, and Gaara wasn't above using underhanded means, though he promised himself that he'd wash his sand later.

Chouji lost due to being too fat to fight properly, even though his clan needed all that fat to perform their clan techniques, when in truth it wasn't really fat that the clan had but muscle, lots of it. The kids were just allowed to bulk up in fat while they were still young and would bulk up in muscle later on when they were told some very awful truths about fast food and fat. There was also the fact that his rolling around caused him to get some motion sickness as well.

With all the winners chosen, the final listing was announced, and the rules were shared with the final participants. They had one month to ready themselves against foes they knew more than they did for the prelims. They had a month to kill, and for Naruto a month to skip.


	63. Chapter 63

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter sixty-three**_

Skip the month of training he did, he appeared just a couple of feet away from the portal that had just closed behind his own portal which had transported his past self slightly more than a month back in time. He then moved through time once again, this time without Manda with him. The serpent had given him all the information about the pending invasion, some of the stuff Naruto had learned was unknown even to the Hokage. But he was confident in the old monkey's inability to die in battle, there were also some of the delegates from other countries present in the audience of the Finals that would do their part in keeping the Hokage safe.

He entered into the combatants booth which was located somewhere on ground level and waited alongside his fellow Chunin hopefulls, though he was more along the lines of Tokubetsu rather than the regular Chunin but not nescessarily being lower but simply special. He waited with a bored expression on his face, it was time to be a tad bit more serious, this was his future on the line after all.

His match was the first one, so after all the participants of the tournament bowed respectfully to the audience, Naruto and Neji remained behind to face each other in combat.

"I look forward to seeing with my own eyes your true power," Neji stated as he entered the opening stance of Jyuuken.

"I look forward to seeing with my own eyes your power as well," Naruto replied and stood in a relaxed stance, he simply stood in front of Neji with a hand in a pant pocket while the other hung limply at his side. His face gained an expression to rival any Nara's, and he actually slouched, all in all he looked bored. Even his eyes gained a bored look to them, one that made some people in the audience, or most, think that he was looking down on Neji, they could feel his aura that screamed boredom.

"You know the rules," Genma said, Hayate was unavailable due to an incident concerning a Suna-nin and a spy of Orochimaru's, "First match...Fight!" the man knew well enough to get out of there having spoken to Gai about the prelimenary fights, the man had revealed Naruto's knowledge of a devastating style.

The two combatants circled around each other, or rather Neji did the circling while Naruto simply stood in place. The Hyuuga not really knowing what to expect decided to take things rather slowly, and not attack head on, there were too many gaps in his knowledge of his opponent's taijutsu style to simply rush in. Unknown to those that weren't intimate with the style, Naruto was using all he had on a semi-subconscious level to keep track of everything around him. He was using all the senses that could help him in the fight. His senses were his sharingan, they were what he used to predict movement, as well as read his opponent's mind.

It was perplexing to Neji that his opponent didn't move even when he had faked an attack. He began to think that Naruto was actually not that serious, or not serious at all with the fight, and so moved, guided by his semi-frustrations, and attacked Naruto preparing enough chakra to knock out Naruto with a single hit.

Big mistake.

Naruto weaved around Neji's extended arm, grabbed hold of it with his formerly limp hand and arm and, with a bit of a tug, propelled Neji a few feet away from where he, Naruto, had previously been standing. It all happened in just a few moments. He ended up facing his temporarily downed opponent setting his arm back into it's limp station at his side.

'_He's still a bit too slow.._' Shiro thought as he watched his relative perform a counter that was not a counter, '_He should have at least tried to perform a palm thrust on the exposed back as Neji was flung forward.._'

"What are you thinking about? You look a bit disappointed," Mikoto told her husband as she noticed his slight frown.

"It's nothing to worry about," Shiro said, "He either hasn't mastered it yet or he's hiding his true power."

"It looked like he got it right," Mikoto said, some people around them began to listen in, "I mean he managed to use Neji's force and momentum against him."

"Had he moved fast enough he would have been able to deliver the follow up strike," Shiro explained to her, "To weave around or to the side of the opponent is to spin in a way, the ending motion of the particular attack leaves the user behind the opponent for less than a split second, with enough speed one would be able to land a hit on the unprotected back adding a bit more force to the soon to be flying opponent."

"But it looked fast enough for me," she told him, "I mean I doubt even I could have moved that fast, it happened just a split second before the young Hyuuga's attack would have hit."

"The style relies on a lot of things," Shiro told her, and by extension the listening in people, "One of them is the body's ability to instantly or quickly adapt to any situation, it requires awareness of everything around the user, it requires quite the chakra control and supply, as well as a number of other things that shouldn't be revealed while in the company of those outside of the family."

The eavesdroppers knew when they were caught and reverted their gazes and ears back to the fight in the arena down below.

As the conversation drew to a close, Neji had finally pulled himself back up to his feet after the initial shock of what had happened settled into his mind. He looked to the Hyuuga booth to guage the reactions of his clansmen and noticed that his clan head was looking a tad bit disappointed. But Haru nodded slightly, acknowledging Neji's skill for the first few moments of the bout, Neji had a feeling that his clan head wasn't pleased with his giving into his impatience.

He formulated a plan in his mind, once done with that, Neji ran at Naruto a second time using chakra to enhance his speed and once he was close enough, he spun using a chakra control exercise to make the ground slippery enough for him to slide on. In this case, he altered the Kaiten to become a moving dome of chakra. He was like a hockey puck on ice, and Naruto was either going to be a net or a stick.

Naruto chose to become the stick and used his time manipulation to slow down time enough to see in what direction the chakra spun, with done he made time around him move normally and used a chakra control exercise of his own to counter Neji's attack. He used the tree climbing and water walking method to grab hold of the dome and get himself to the otherside of it, once there he slowed down time enough to stick himself to the ground then he punched the dome. The effect was not the shattering of the dome, but the sending of Neji's dome attack careening towards one of the walls like an Akamichi bowling ball.

"Do you have any comments?" Mikoto asked her husband.

"Not really," Shiro said, "Though I guess if he had better control he could have slid on the dome's surface all the way to the tippy top and shattered it through there."

"Is that a part of the style?" she asked him.

"No," Shiro admitted, "Some parts of it are, but the implementation of chakra control methods are his own thing and not a part of the core style."

Somewhere else in the audience the hidden, underneath magically amplified transformation techniques, were Ryoku and his party consisting of his wife, elder son, and his wife's Seven. Another member of his party was none other than the Shinigami himself, said Being was cheering on Naruto, though only mentally.

'_Interesting application,_' Ryoku thought to himself before throwing a popcorn on the Shinigami that was making a weird face.

Neji was not dizzy thanks to his eyes as they allowed him to look in just one direction during the duration of his moving spin attack. The dome of chakra he had had around him also protected him from getting hurt this time. As soon as the dome shattered from the impact, as well as his releasing of the techniques that kept him in motion, he return to the opening stance of his taijutsu style and beconed Naruto to initiate the next part of their fight. He decided to stop attacking as he didn't want to know what a third offensive move would do.

'_Kage Bushin no Jutsu,_' Naruto mentally intoned, no handseal needed, and a single clone materialized in front of him, "Deal with this insect, it is not worthy of my personal attentions."

The clone simply nodded and vanished from where it had appeared only to appear directly in front of the Hyuuga and delivered a downward punch sending the Hyuuga who had not been expecting the attack to be so fast to the ground face first, the rest of his body following soon after. But the clone's success did not last for long as Neji's body was actually replaced by reflex and a bit of instinct with a branch from one of the trees in the arena. It had saved him from a lot of injuries, and the only reason why he had managed to do the switch was that the clone wasn't as fast or strong as the original.

It grasped what had happened too late as its momentary hesitation gave Neji the time he needed to jump out of the shadows of the trees and perform another spin, this time it was only a few spins but when he stopped his spinning it was combined with an area attack which consisted of flinging kunai and shuriken with the force fo the multiple spins. The clone managed to deflect the kunai with a pair of its own, but Neji had anticipated that and was on the clone seconds after the kunai and delivered a killing blow to the clone's solar plexus destroying it.

It didn't poof into smoke as most of its kind was known to do, it simply vanished. No one really noticed that the whole time that it was in the path of light it did not have a shadow and when it was destroyed a shadow of its last position formed before vanishing as well.

"If that's the best you can do, I'm sorely disappointed," Neji tried taunting Naruto, but the tokubetsu genin wasn't really paying attention to the taunt.

"I'll give you something to be sore about," Naruto said, and sent his hands into separate seals, he disengaged from the Ryokuken as he didn't want to have to show off everything he could do with it. When the final seal for his jutsu was reached, he slammed his fists into the ground, "Doton: Mazāāsu no gurippu!"

Chakra was pumped into the ground, Naruto tracked down where exactly Neji was standing through his fists, and once he was locked-on he let his chakra do the rest of the technique. The technique was purely a chakra technique, one which connected the user to the chakra of the ground itself. Naruto became one with the ground in a sense, but could only use it to form hands, and partial arms.

He formed two just behind Neji who reacted accordingly, attempting to get out of the way, but was grabbed by one of the hands, which began to squeeze the air out of his lungs. The fist gripped Neji's chest, but not his arms. He tried to use those, he forced out chakra through his hands using mid-ranged jyuuken attacks that were meant to disrupt the jutsu itself. He was barely successful in that he managed to weaken the grip enough for him to take a necessary gulp of air.

Naruto didn't want to kill Neji which was why using the jutsu was getting a bit taxing on him, he could only use it for a certain amount of time before he succumbed to its tempting offer. To become one with the ground or the earth meant that there was the possibility of actualling merging mentally with it, and causing his physical body to turn to stone and eventually stop being alive altogether.

There were those in the past that used the jutsu to great effect, but at the same time losing their individuality and self of self, ending up as fragile statues signifying the fragility of their minds. Naruto didn't want to suffer such a fate as eventually the earth would pull him into its vast self, absorb him back into itself, and end his life and career well before it really begun.

He pulled himself out of the technique when he felt his consciousness slipping, and when it came to that technique losing consciousness was a very dangerous thing. So he let go of Neji and backed away and caught his breath, he didn't remember the technique being that tiring, of course that was probably due to the fact that around 75% of his power was sealed away.

Neji capitalized on Naruto's slight show of tiring and rushed his opponent, he didn't even bother announcing his technique and let his palms fly through the 128 Palms thing that the Hyuuga could perform. It was fast paced and very accurate especially considering that the Hyuuga had those special eyes of their to help them achieve what they wished to achieve.

Neji did not fail to close any tenketsu, at least the non-life threatening ones as he too didn't want to severly injure or kill his opponent. His clan head would probably murder him if he managed to succeed as he had a feeling that when Naruto was sent flying into a wall of the arena of his own he was playing possum.

Before the proctor could call the match, Naruto stood from where he had been, the section containing the Hyuuga gave out a collective surprised gasp, except for Haru who knew what was happening. While Naruto didn't have access to some of his chakra, that didn't mean that he couldn't move without such access. He was moving and it was rather frightening to some of the Hyuuga as they witnessed one of their strongest and prized techniques get beaten.

Naruto stood amongst the piles of debris caused by his collision with the wall. It was a painful experience, even though he's had some experience with worse, like that almost suicide jutsu he had mastered and used against a Chimera several hundred years in the past.

He was running on magic now, just enough to move, and it appeared that his kinjutsu library had been temporarily taken away from him, had the fight been a life or death one he would just unseal his points and gone nuts, but since it was a test to showcase their abilities as potential leaders on mission and the like, they had to show off some, while at the same time show some manner of restraint.

"Let's finish this," Naruto said, loud enough for Neji to hear him from all the way at the other end of the arena, "One last attack, I'm sure our audience would love to see what our fellow hopefuls have in store for them."

"Let's," Neji agreed, while he knew that he could go on for a while longer he doubted that he had the stamina required to keep going with Naruto, there also was the fact that there were others that needed to showcase their abilities.

"I may be out of jutsu, but I've still got this body of mine," Naruto said and bull rushed Neji, he cocked a fist back and prepared to slug Neji.

"Hmph," Neji ignored Naruto's words but charged the blonde all the same, and for many it was quite a surprising move since the white eyed teen mirrored the blonde in actions, cocking a fist back as he ran.

They met in the middle, the very center of the arena, the force of their punches sent a shockwave exploding away from them like some earthquake. The explosive force of their punches connecting with each other caused some dust to fly about obscuring the view of the spectators.

When the dust cloud cleared, the two combatants were still standing, a fist in each other's face. Then as if some kind of signal was given Neji crumpled to the ground, while Naruto simply began to massage the part of his face that had been hit by a Hyuuga chakra powered punch. Boy did it hurt.

"Winner Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma shouted, the audience erupted into cheers for the astounding performance between two genin, or one genin and one very special genin.

Once Naruto finally left the arena floor, he headed over to where his family were up in the stands, he didn't really need to watch the upcoming fight which was between Sabaku no Kankuro and Aburame Shino. Chakra strings versus Chakra eating bugs. It could go either way, not that Naruto cared much to personally watch, he had Haru for that.

"So, how'd I do?" Naruto asked the collective Toukou and Jikoku clansmen, as well as their entourage.

"If it were up to me," Ryoku said still under disguise, "I wouldn't promote you on the simple basis that the fight was too long. There are still other matches to showcase bits and pieces of your abilities. Good thing for you that I'm not the one judging the worth of you and your fellow genin."

"I see, thanks for the honesty Jiji," Naruto said.

"I agree with my Ryo-kun," Mei told Naruto, "It was far too long, though it was quite the show."

"Thanks Baa-chan," Naruto said gratefully.

"Those all the jutsu you've got?" Kisame asked, he had temporarily dumped his partner somewhere else in Hi no Kuni just to attend the Chunin Exam Finals, he wasn't really all that much aware of the Uchiha not being an actual Uchiha, though it was probably a good thing since no one really knew how Itachi would have reacted.

"Nope," Naruto replied, "But a good shinobi doesn't show all of his tricks, just the ones that he doesn't think will bite him in the ass later on in life."

"Good enough for me," Zabuza said, Haku nodding along. Haku was there due to being his father's apprentice.

"I wish I could have done some of that," Choujuro said, as shy and low on self worth as ever.

"But you're an elite," Naruto said, "You've got your own thing going Nii-san."

"Hehe," Choujuro said as he scratched the back of his head, "I guess you're right."

"If you don't get this promotion I'd like for you to go all out in Kiri should you attend the exams there," Raiga said, "I have a feeling that you'd blow away the competition."

"I figured you'd say that," Naruto said.

"Interesting match," Yagura stated.

"Thanks Yagura-nii," Naruto said.

"I look forward to the day I face you on the battlefield," Shiki stated, then gave a small smirk.

"Uhh...I don't think I'd like to think about that," Naruto said as he wasn't sure he'd really be a match for someone like Kaguya Shiki.

"We'll see when it happens," Shiki said.

"Enough teasing boner boy," Usagi said and made her way over to Naruto, she whispered in his ear, "_So, you read it yet?_"

"GyaaH!" Naruto exclaimed flailed around for a bit before some blood dripped from one nostril, "Please, don't do that!"

"You could have done a bit better," Shiro said, "But overall I'd recommend you for the promotion."

"I don't know, you did say he was a bit too slow," Mikoto said to her husband, "But congratulations Naruto-kun on your bout."

"Thanks," Naruto said, and stayed with his family and family friends for the duration of Shino's fight which was a battle of skill and tactics, as both sides had a lot to lose, Shino not really having gained an immunity to many poisons and fire, while Kankuro had the bugs to worry about. In the end, the fight was declared a draw as both genin ended up with kunai pointed at each other's vitals.

The next fight was between Nara Shikamaru and Sabaku no Temari. The lazy genin nearly didn't go down for the fight but then remembered a promise made to him by his secret girlfriend about a good time if he won his match. With such a reward on the line, he had no other choice than to actually grow up some rather early.

"KAI!" many shinobi cried out expelling some chakra, these were the people that had thought that they just saw one of the laziest of shinobi actually willingly go into battle a stressful and always in motion activity. Ryoku blinked, while Naruto banged his head against the wall, Shiro following suit, and surprisingly Shikaku joining them.

Shikamaru's very own team couldn't believe that their lazy teammate had just jumped over the railing he had been leaning on when his name had been called. He took the initiative for once and hadn't been called a second time. He stood looking ever bit a shinobi as he could.

His calm demeanor and expression bellied quite a lot of potential that the judges could see. Just by jumping into the pit the judges marked Shikamaru for the promotion. His choice to unflinchingly go into battle was a testament to what it meant to be a leader sometimes. They knew from some psych reports that the Nara genin had quite the IQ, they wanted to see what he could do with it.

"So the slacker isn't really a slacker," Temari said, "Was that all an act before?"

"No," Shikamaru admitted, "I don't usually do these kinds of things, but I promised someone I'd fight today, so here I am. Proctor?"

"Right," Genma said, "Fighters, ready?"

"Hai," Temari said.

"Hai," Shikamaru said.

"Ready," Genma said.

Temari reached for her battle fan.

Shikamaru reached for his weapon's pouch.

"Set," Genma said.

The tension was so thick one could cut through it with a knife and it would show. Temari was readying herself for a Fuuton justsu to start her side of the battle. She knew that she needed to conserve her chakra, but at the same time she knew that Konoha would be easier to beat with one less Nara to lean on.

Shikamaru had kept, mostly, to himself during the month's worth of training time. He had quite the motivator and motivation to for once in his life actually and voluntarily train. Tsuchi Kin was that motivator and motivation. She seduced him into voluntarily making himself better as she didn't want to lose him in the upcoming invasion. She had found something, some worth to her life that went beyond simply being another one of Orochimaru's countless tools. She had told him what she knew, and he promised to keep her safe somehow.

Not only was his hand ready to grab some weapons, but his shadow was ready to burst forward.

"BEGIN!" even Genma had felt the rising tension between the two, he jumped out of the way just in the nick of time as the two genin unleashed their opening attacks.

Temari brought a whirlwind to life with but a swing of her fan, sending up dirt, rocks, and dust up into the air and swirling towards Shikamaru. The Nara on the otherhand flung all of his kunai in seemingly random directions, and his shadow exploding outwards as he dodged the mini-tornado, the shadow extended from him and connected to any and every shadow it could reach. His kunai served a secondary purpose other than creating pockets of shadow for him to connect to.

"Is that all you can do shadow-user!" Temari shouted over the roar of her winds, more and more she sent the Nara's way, "Give it up boy!"

"Katsu!" he shouted as he ignited the tags attached to his kunai via the shadows that were connected to them.

While those that were watching the fight expected there to be some rather rattling explosions at the igniting of the tags, what they got instead were multiple supercharged smoke. While the roaring winds managed to blow away large portions of the smoke cloud, enough of it was there for Shikamaru to slink his shadow all the way to Temari's own.

By the time all the smoke had cleared, Shikamaru had Temari at kunai point, she was also disarmed, completely helpless, and at his mercy.

"Surrender, or the Kazekage is less one child," Shikamaru threatened.

"I surrender," she said not too loud as the kunai was that close to her neck.

"Winner Nara Shikamaru!" Genma announced, the fight was probably the quickest of them so far, and would probably remain as the fastest one for the remainder of the tournament.

"If that is all I'll take my leave," Shikamaru said as he used chakra to aid him as he jumped back into the stands, instead of walking over to his cheering comrades he walked off to wherever. He was actually going to go look for his girlfriend, he had a bad feeling in the pit of his gut that something was wrong, that something had happened to her.

"Well, that was intense in it's own way," Ryoku said as he watched Shikamaru leave from the corner of his eye, he motioned for one of his guards, specifically Shun Tamago, to shadow the shadow-user. The Kiri Oi-nin Commander nodded once before vanishing from where he sat as if he had never been there in the first place. The Konoha Anbu were none the wiser that there had been an addition to their number, an impressive feat in and of itself, not considering that there were spies even among their ranks as well as sleeper agents.

"Will Sabaku no Gaara and Uchiha Sasuke come down so that we may begin their match!" Genma shouted.

Gaara appeared in a swirl of sand, while Sasuke appeared in a swirl of leaves. Both combatants took their places opposite one another, and prepared for battle.

"You know the rules already..so..." Genma prepared to get out of there as fast as he could, these fighters were supposed to be genin, not the supe'd up fighters that they turned out to be, "Begin!"

The two genin stared one another down, while one wasn't the vicious killer his reputation portrayed him as, Sasuke didn't know that. His sensei had taught him that his opponent was a cold hearted and blooded killer. That he was to expect not even a sliver of mercy from him, and thus shouldn't show any of his own. He was to take down the Kazekage's youngest son by any means necessary.

Gaara on the other hand simply watched him opponent, he did not underestimate his enemy, he could not afford to especially since there was the invasion he had been ordered to participate in, not that he liked that fact. He didn't want to fight against his friends.

He knew that his sand would protect him, even without the subconsciousness of the Shukaku, the sand would still automatically react to any intent to harm him, be it from weapon or warrior, not that Sasuke was such as he was an Avenger.

Seeing no movement from the sand-user, Sasuke decided to begin the match by attacking. He sent several shuriken to test out the suna-nin's defenses, even though he already knew that the sand would stop any attack he sent it's way. But that was also just a distraction as it gave him time to flash through some hand seals, ones that allowed him to activate a jutsu that his sensei had taught him, Chidori.

Once the chirping of a thousands birds could be heard throughout the arena, Sasuke ran around his oppponent gathering speed, speed necessary for his technique to pierce through the supposedly ultimate defense.

Gaara knew that the lightning attack would be something to watch out for. So he directed his sand to chase after Sasuke, a bad move on his part, as it left him open for some attacks to be sent his way, had he been fighting with a group. He sent Sand shurikens at Sasuke hoping to hit the demon of speed. They missed him by mere milimeters.

"Too slow," Sasuke said as he got within striking range, only to plunge his lighting attack into a shield of sand that instantly came up to defend it's master. Gaara was saved from that attack as it could have crippled him, his people were depending on him, so he couldn't show weakness.

Sasuke tried to get in close again, many in the audience were shocked and surprised at his knowledge of an assassination techinique, but chalked it up to his being a genius and an Uchiha. They saw his drive, but the judges themselves saw only someone that loved battle, that loved to fight, that lived off of bloodshed, or would live off of it given the chance.

Up in the Kage Box, the Kazekage signaled for the invasion to begin as the fight in the arena was not going to be going anywhere, and he felt that the village had gotten to be complacent enough to not expect the attack to occur so unexpectedly.

Shiro, Ryoku, and company noticed as the genjutsu descended upon the spectators, and immediately canceled it, along with their transformation jutsus. Standing, there, in one section of stands was a contingent of Kirigakure's most powerful shinobi to have ever been part of her ranks. Suna, Oto, and Konoha, shinobi were unprepared for the sight or what it could mean for the outcome of the battle ahead.

"Shiro," Ryoku said authoratively, "Help your Hokage, I have some students to reprimand."

"Hai," Shiro said before simply vanishing from his space and reappearing on the roof where the Hokage was busily battling one of his students, "Need any help old man?"

"Yes!" the Hokage said just before a purple barrier sprung up around the three of them, Orochimaru didn't really care that there was an additional player in his little game.

"*"

Tamago had shown himself to Shikamaru as soon as he sensed the commencement of the invasion, the Nara hadn't taken the revelation that he had been stalked so well, but he resigned himself to what he thought was his ultimate defeat as he doubted he had what it took to take on an Anbu garbed shinobi.

"My Lord has been monitoring the situation," Tamago said, "I am Shun Tamago of Kiri, I shall aid you in this little adventure of yours."

"I'll trust you as I don't really have a choice in the matter," Shikamaru said, "Do you have any idea where Kin might be? I figured that my match was all I needed to get the promotion and have been searching for her since the end of said match."

"She is being held at the summit of the Hokage Mountain," Tamago said after reaching out his senses for a short while, "I can sense some people up there, one of them female matching the description Naruto-sama gave me through a friend."

"Naruto-sama...nevermind, let's get to the summit," Shikamaru said, then asked, "Do you know of a way that we can get there without being hindered?"

"I know of a way," Tamago said, "Think of where you want us to go, I'll do the rest," he then took out a small black block of wood, it was actually a special kind of portkey that mixed itself with a bit of apparation.

"I'm thinking of it," Shikamaru said, "Well?"

"Don't be so impatient," Tamago said, "Be ready for battle for I have a feeling I know where we'll be ending up...Hajime!"

Shikamaru felt like he was being squeezed through some tube like toothpaste before being ejected from the cramped space a few feet above the summit of the mountain.

"I wasn't thinking about this place!" Shikamaru shouted over the sound of the wind as the two of them rapidly descended.

"You Nara and your clouds!" Tamago said, "Don't worry about the landing, we'll live!"

"How can you be so sure!" Shikamaru shouted.

"We just will!" Tamago shouted, "So get ready to act like those romantic shinobi and save your Hime!"

"Hai!" Shikamaru shouted, and moments later the two of them landed on the heads of a few Oto-nin that were about to aid their master in activating a jutsu, "Kin!"

"Shika!" Kin exclaimed in surprise, thinking that she must he dreaming.

The jutsu was about to be activated with her in the middle of the jutsu seal array.

'_Nara Hijutsu: Sen Kage no Te!_' Shikamaru screamed in his mind as he had his shadow connect to all of the ones around him, but instead of controling the movements of their owners, they detached themselves from the ground and other surfaces and became extensions of his body. With such a technique the split second that it took to replace Kin with a random Oto-nin was possible with a forced Kawarimi, using the kagemane.

There were roughly around twenty-seven Oto-nin in the area, and they all tried to run for their lives once one of them noticed the presence of Tamago who had changed his look to that of Oi-nin Commander, he was in the Bingo Book in what he wore, though he was listed only as Oi-nin Commander.

His weapons of choice for the battle was a pair of chopsticks, and he was quite deadly with them. He had an assortment of other weapons of his person, and he used them all to take down the Oto-nin that were not being defeated by Shikamaru who had to divide his attention between his girlfriend, who had just realized that she that close to death, and the Oto-nin that were attacking him.

"Kin-chan," Shikamaru said, "Hold on to me, and don't let go!"

"Hai," the formerly overconfident girl said, as she grabbed hold of Shikamaru who released his technique and ran for the edge of the mountain and actually jumped.

Tamago, seeing what his young companion had done, ran and leapt off after the Nara. He shot out some chakra strings and chakra ropes to grab onto thing so that he and the other two wouldn't seriously injure themselves. He managed to catch the Konoha-nin and former Oto-nin with a combination of chakra strings and ropes before he landed on the net he created to catch them as well.

"That was fun," Tamago said and underneath his donned mask he was grinning from ear to ear, "Wanna do it again?"

"No!" Shikamaru and Kin shouted at the same time.

"Well, we won't be getting down anytime soon," Tamago said, "As just keeping this net up is taking a lot of my exceptional control. So if you have any projectiles left, feel free to try and snipe the Oto or Suna shinobi from here."

"*"

While Shikamaru, Tamago, and Kin, rained what kunai and shuriken and long ranged attacks they could think of at the Suna and Oto forces below them, Ryoku was busily defending the walls from the Snake summons, all of whom were unable to return to their realms due to the beating they were receiving from Ryoku and his forms.

"I thought I told you to just go home!" Manda in human form shouted at his clan members, he would have hissed up a storm if it weren't for him generally trying to avoid attention from the Konoha forces.

"M-Manda-s-sama!" one of the three headed serpents exclaimed in surprise, "W-We..."

"Go home!" Manda shouted.

Some Oto-nin that were directing the serpents in the direction of the hidden village decided to see what was going on. The Oto-nin was sliced in half by Ryuumusha, the samurai of the personas or forms. He moved on to the next Oto-nin that dared raise a blade to him in defiance.

"S-shit! Hebi clan retreat! Kuchiyose Shishou is here!" one of the heads called for an all out retreat, they would be getting an earful from Manda when they all managed to get back home since Ryoku's core was beating up one of the larger single headed serpents.

Shinobu dashed through the foliage and green of the forest making heads rolll with the use of his kama. He was as the wind, swift, silent, and deadly. He cut through his victims' necks more smoothly than a hot knife through butter. It was a massacre on Oto's part. They may have started out with superior numbers in comparison with Konoha, but Shinobu was thinning their numbers quickly.

Keigo stood guard over one of the main entrances of the shelters where civilians were herded into. They were potential death traps in an enemy managed to get in, even with the Chunin that had been stationed within. He used spear and naginata to decimate any foolish enough to cross his path. Bodies littered the ground around him, not a single Suna-nin or Oto-nin managed to get past the reach of his blades, which was infinite thanks to the wonders of magic.

One of the elite jounin of Suna that was participating in the invasion recognized Mei, and called on his team to retreat as he knew that they were clearly outmatched though he did wonder why the Mizukage of all people was in Konoha of all places, a village of a country that Mizu no Kuni in its entirety was supposed to still hold a grudge against. Too bad the jounin's team didn't realize the danger they were in.

His men were boiled alive from the inside out, their blood turning hot enough to become a mist of red that escaped from their pores. The jounin himself got to experience first hand what it felt like to be bathed in lava.

Takeshi was having a blast, he got to fight within the walls of Konoha once again. It was fun, it was so much fun that he forgot that he wasn't home. He spammed water dragons left and right pulling water out of the very air itself, not caring that he was reminding the Konoha-nin of the Nidaime Hokage with his antics. He was having a blast. He was fighting in a war the likes of which hadn't ever really been seen in Mizu since the Invasion of the Asparagus Monsters, or those tentacle monsters that had a thing for the Momochi clan, save for Haku for some reason.

He went wild, taking pot shots at Suna-nin for no other reason other than their being what they were. Invaders of his descendant's home village. They were a threat to his family's home, and thus a threat to his family. Takeshi didn't take such threats lightly.

The Monster and Demon of the Mist had taken up positions near the Forest of Death since someone had thought that it would be a good idea to unleash the monsters that were kept within the training field by the fence that surrounded it at all times. There was practically a colony of Onigumo in that forest, kept in check by seals melded into the metal that made up the fence of the training ground. But with the gates and fences breached, they were pouring out in the tens.

"Seventy!" Kisame shouted as he ripped a spider to shreds.

"Seventy-one!" Zabuza shouted back having cleaved two in two with one swing of his own massive blade.

"One hundred forty-one!" Haku shouted, as he had encased a rather large group with his ice mirrors, a bloodline he had inherited from his mother, his ice needles had done the rest, thousands of ice needles were sure to do that. He was the son and apprentice of his father, and with an S-class shinobi for a father his reserves were bound to be large.

"Two hundred eighty-two!" Usagi shouted gleefully, she was making great use of her whip like sword, all she needed to do was spin with the thing in place, and she turned herself into a whirlwind of blade that cut up anything that came into contact with it.

When they thought that there couldn't be anything bigger than the monsters that they had been dispatching so far, a Konoha-nin actually ended up running past the Kiri-nin, followed by his comrades.

"What gives?" Yagura demanded of a man in green spandex.

"The flames of youth do not burn bright enough or hot enough to beat that thing!" Maito Gai shouted as wrenched himself free from Yagura's grip and raced off to defend another part of the village, one that didn't have Gamabunta sized spiders bearing down on the fighters.

"No m-matter what," Choujuro said, "Killing that thing will only count as a one."

"Nah," Raiga said, "We'll divide the kill between all that help."

"Kill it! The longer it stays alive the longer I'll have to put off reading my Icha Icha!" Usagi shouted as she ran at the giant spider swinging her blade like a mad woman.

"RAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Kisame and Zabuza followed suit, Haku chose to kill off the smaller spiders, while the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist tackled the monstrosity.

The monster's silken threads were shot in the Kiri-nins direction, none of them wanted to get caught in the chakra coated things that they assumed was as pliable as silk but at the same time could be as hard or harder than titanium. It wasn't only the threads fo spider webbing that they had to dodge, but also the hairs that would randomly turn into spikes that impaled all in their path.

It had a rather tough exoskeleton compared with its younger and smaller brethren.

"That's it!" Usagi shouted as she ran off to help Haku, "I quit! It's only weakspots are found inside! Good luck boys!"

"I've always wanted to kill something from the inside!" Kisame and Zabuza shouted as they both ran up the legs of the spider, dodging and recklessly evading any attempts by the spider to squash them like bugs. They jumped onto it's head, mooned the monster then slid down it's fangs, which got them to the thing's mouth.

"Woohoo Senpais!" Choujuro cheered them on, while Raiga ran off to get a few more spider kills.

Little did any of them know that Shiki was inside the forest and battling three of such creatures underground at the same time and was not having that hard of a time. It was all thanks to his bloodline which he spammed all over the place. He filled the whole of the colony's home with his bone spikes, spears, staves, and other pointy thingies.

It was a massacre down there, and part of the reason why the spiders were all so agreessive, more so than usual, was due to the invasion of their home more than the bountiful feast that Konoha proper provided for them.

Shiki was going nuts down there. The three behemoths were contemplating suicide due to the number of bones stuffed into them.

"FOR THE WHITE LOTUS BLOSSOMS!" Shiki's voice suddenly rang out over the Traning Field battlefield, it sounded so demented that the spiders just grew more aggressive all of them trying desperately to escape their home and kill anything in their path to hopefully slow down this greater threat to their continued existence.

"Looks like someone unleashed Shiki..." Yagura noted, "That or one of the spiders dented a nail."

Back with Shiki, underground and with the spiders, the spiders had actually caused him a well manicured nail. He spent hours painting them with art works that depicted the proud history of his clan. Then the spider just had to hit his nail at just the right angle.

"Dance of the Po..." a spider managed to stick him in place which gave them some time to trying and wiggle free, it was a bad thing that the web made him look like some sexual deviant that liked being whipped or spanked, "screw this...DANCE OF THE OPIUM ADDICTION!"

Yagura shivered slightly, while Raiga fell over in shock.

"He didn't just..." Yagura said as he split a spider in two with his staff.

"Naruto-sama had better not learn that kinjutsu," Raiga said as he fried several spiders with lightning as he waited for the explosion of killing intent that was sure to come after such a dreaded technique.

"*"

The Kazekage's children, the two older ones, ran with their youngest brother to an agreed upon place outside of the Hidden Village in order for Gaara to do his part of the whole invasion thing, though they were not aware that Gaara no longer held the monster that was supposed to do the most property damange in the invasion. Hot on their heels was none other than Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto. Shino had to stop in his pursuit as he was confronted by some Suna jounin that held a grudge against the Aburame clan. Too bad they didn't know that Shino had gained a little bit of a boost in his hive thanks to a certain contract he had accidentally signed when he was younger.

That contract being one with the Kikaichu Summon Clan, his own clan didn't know of its existence but the summons themselves had chosen Shino to be their first summoner since the founding of the Aburame clan. His inner hive burst outward from within him, the massive swarm was more than even his entire clan combined, how they all fit in his body was a mystery even to himself.

"Sh-shit..." one of the jounin with a grudge said, they didn't think that the grandson of their clan's enemy was this powerful to have control over such a large hive was terrifying.

"W-we've gotta get outta here," another jounin said stuttering a little bit.

"I will not permit such lower life forms from harming my home," Shino stated monotonously, then pointed at each man and the swarm engulfed each jounin until all there was was blackness due to the immense size and number of bugs in the place. The jounin suffered an agonizing death, not only were they sucked of all of their chakra, but all the liquids that their body had, while at the same time hearing an intense buzzing sound from all the beetles, they were being hurt physically and mentally at the same time.

Aburame Shino was a real sadist when it came to the defense of his Hive, his Home. Konoha.

By the time that some reinforcements had arrived the jounin had all been dealt with, nothing of them was left save for their dried up husks and the sounds of approval from the bugs that had all had and shared their fill with their brethren.

"What the hell?" one of the Konoha chunin that had arrived said, then hopped over to Shino, placed a comforting hand on the genin's shoulder, "You did well Genin Aburame, now get back to Konoha, that must have been quite the drain on your chakra."

"Hai," Shino said before bounding off in the direction of Konoha, "My friends went further on after the Subaku siblings."

"Thanks for the info," the chunin said as he lead his team further away from the village following the faint sounds of battle hoping to find more surviving genin, whilst wondering why genin were the ones dealing with these dangerous threats and not other chunin or jounin for that matter. What he didn't know was that there really were a lot more things going on in the village and a lot more attackers than just two hidden villages.

There was another faction at work which was attacking the higher ups in the forces using the invasion as a distraction in order to assert control over the village.

"Well you guys heard the kid, we've got some more genin to look for, move out!" the chunin ordered as they dashed onwards, further and faster, hoping for the best.

"*"

Sasuke and Sakura were forced to fight off the two elder siblings of Suna's ultimate weapon, while Naruto went after his friend even further from the village. He knew that his friend was only doing his duty, so he, Naruto, had to do so as well.

"You know we really don't need to do this?" Naruto said, "But I have a feeling that you're only doing this for your comrades."

"I am going to unleash my power on your home," Gaara said, the two of them stood on opposite branches on different trees, "I am sorry for that. But I must show my comrades my support. I will fight alongside them, as they are my precious allies, even though most of them still do not like me or fear me, my friend."

"I understand," Naruto said, "Which is why I shall fight you, in this form. I am sorry that you will have to lose to me this day."

"I am sorry that I will have to fight a friend," Gaara said, "Let us begin. Bijuu against Bijuu."

"Let's," Naruto said.

The two of them started to draw out their hidden powers, their chakra was the first to rush out of their bodies, forming towering and blazing auras that reached up to lick at the sky. It was a beautiful sight, their human chakras clashed with one another's they were like a pair of dragons or serpents coiling around one another clashing for dominance.

Both teens drew into opening stances of different taijutsu, Gaara took on one that resembled how Son Goku would stand when preparing his kamehameha but this one with sand pouring out of a gourd and forming a larger sandier version of Gaara. He was preparing to hurl sand canonballs at Naruto.

Naruto didn't enter the opening stance of Ryokuken, instead he entered something that he had stumbled across on accident while he was training in that former fort all those years ago. A scroll that was almost ashes had been tucked away in a nook in the fort, within it Naruto learned a style of taijutsu with a number of smaller branches. It was known as Kage Bushin no Ken. Shadow Clone Fist.

The opening stance was simply forming the cross seal for the Kage Bushin no Jutsu. This was a kinjutsu taijutsu for a kinjutsu specialist, built around the need for a large chakra pool to draw from. The near endless energy that Naruto contained was more than enough reason for the style to suit him more than the Hyuuga like personality that the Ryokuken had.

They attacked at the drop of a leaf, the sand canonballs flew as Gaara flung them with both hands, his larger version did that actual flinging as his core form did all the throwing motions. It was a non-contact style that needed the use of projectiles, normally shuriken and kunai not sand. But Gaara worked with what he had. It also depended on the sand and regular earth for defense, the earth and sand being that which intercepted any attacks sent to the user.

Naruto's taijutus on the other hand was a close to mid range style, but was in a sense also non-contact but instead of projectiles, clones were formed to make the hits. But unlike regular Kage Bushin these ones burst into the element that was used in their creation, they were also stronger than their regular counterpart, each one with a large chakra count in them. Unlike Gaara's sand larger sand form, Naruto's clones didn't do everything that his core form, the original, did. They would perform the last motion the user did before their creation or at their creation and it wasn't the cross shaped seal either, since to even use this style the user needed to not need any hand seals.

The creation or formation of the clones was also different from how they normally came to life. These clones didn't simply appear or come out in a puff of smoke, no, these clones looked like they had been ejected from the user, like some weird afterimage, but instead of the user leaving them behind, they left the user behind.

Naruto stepped back with his arms crossed over his chest as if accepting the canonball of sand's force, exiting from him at that moment was a Kage Bushin with a similar pose, it's body blocked the ball of sand which also made it burst into tendrils of shadow that merged with shadows in the area.

Had the clone survived it would have gone on to serve as a defender for Naruto, but it didn't so it was unable to perform its greater purpose.

Gaara sent volley after volley of canonballs of sand in Naruto's general direction prompting Naruto to perform his now personal style of taijutsu, his clone taking the hits for him while he kept to the general shadows drawing from them some power for his peculiar style of taijutsu.

When he finally grew tired of defending, he decided on going on the offensive and see how Gaara fared when he was forced against Naruto's more offensive clone attacks.

'_Hokage Bushin no Jutsu_'he thought in his mind as he extended an arm in a punching motion, at the end of the punch, at the point where he would have slammed his fist into his opponent a clone shot out of Naruto, this one was not a regular Kage Bushin, it wasn't even like the ones that Naruto used to block. It was a FireShadow Clone, it embodied the Will of Fire. It did not look a thing like Naruto, only that it had blonde hair and the rest of its form was covered in shinobi shouzoku, actually the Kage Bushin that Naruto used to defend himself also wore the similar attire except their faces were seen. The elemental Kage Bushin had a small patch on one of their arms with the kanji of their element of association written on it.

The clone that Naruto created formed a Kage Bushin of its own to intercept the ball of sand that had been in its path. It ran around the ball and got in close and personal to Gaara. Gaara reacted by slamming the clone with two slabs of rock causing it to explode. But instead of the expected shadow tendrils it was as if an explosive seal tag had detonated. A fireball burst forth, and had any sand been near the blaze it would have turned into glass.

Naruto followd up the first clone with several more, he sent punches and kicks at Gaara's direction the clone that came out of him were intent on landing those blows before really doing anything else, of course they did create their own Kage Bushin for self-defense purposes, but that was the extent of their chakra use in attacking before landing a hit. But none of them managed to hit Gaara.

Gaara decided to switch tactics after one canonball of sand was turned into a ball of dense glass which Naruto had a Tsuchikage Bushin kick in Gaara's direction, it had been stopped and shattered by a slab of earth that quickly rose in front of Gaara. He used a combination of whips of sand, waves of sand, arms and hands of sand, along with sand shuriken and kunai flying their way at Naruto and his clone creations.

Naruto countered the attacks with his many classes of Kage Bushin.

They did not restrict their fight to the trees, but fought on the ground, and in some cases in the air itself, but neither of them actually made body to body contact with one another during that stage of the fight.

Gaara dished out whatever punishement he could come up with with his sand as offense and his earth, mud, and rock, attacks for defense mostly. He had the elements of wind and earth at his disposal, they were remnants of Shukaku which he could use without the Bijuu power he had in him as the new Ichibi.

Naruto on the other hand, left over by the Kyuubi, had all the elements at his beck and call, but he had also had his blood to thank for such an ability. He had all manner of clones to use with his style, but mostly he stuck to the basics which were the Hokage, Tsuchikage, Raikage, Kazekage, and Mizukage. Sure they were all named the same way the Five Great Hidden Villages were called, but it was what they were. They were representations of the strengths of those Kages.

The Kage Bushin was their leader, it was the one that hid in the shadows, it was stealth, it was also control. Hokage for fire element, it exploded in flames consuming all in contact with it upon its _death_ in fire. Physical contact from the clone would also burn, and side from creating Kage Bushins, it was restricted to Katon Jutsu. The same went for the other elemental Kage Bushin, they were restricted to their element in terms of ninjutsu, could create a limited number of Kage Bushin, and would explode not into chakra smoke but into their element.

While Hokage burned, Mizukage flowed, it was evasion, but when it struck it was hard and fast, and usualy from the back. Physical attacks targeted the pressure points and tenketsu points in the body of their target. Tsuchikage was rock hard, it slammed into its targets body with the force of the moving tectonic plates, or so it was compared but on a smaller scale, it blew up into rocks that fell AoE style around the place it detonated on. Kazekage cut, simple as that, its explosion was in the form of a tornado of cutting blades. Raikage paralyzed, stunned, numbed, and fried, its explosion was like the striking of lightning.

"This is getting us nowhere other than the continued destruction of our surroundings," Gaara shouted from his end of the battlefield, it truly was a warzone fit for the two former jinchuuriki, "Maybe we should take it up a notch?"

"Sure thing buddy!" Naruto shouted as he unlocked the gate that held his Bijuu power at bay, Gaara did the same.

The color of the desert sands blasted out of Gaara forming a cocoon of it around him that took on the form of a tanuki, from there the sand latched onto this form and caused him to grow larger than life. Any Suna-nin that managed to look in the direction found the unmistakeable form of Shukaku forming in the distance.

"Time to taste the might of Sunagakure no Sato's future Kazekage!" Gaara shouted in a booming voice, "I am Sabaku no Gaara, and I shall not let you stand in my way of aiding my comrades in battle!"

The color of blood burst forth out of Naruto's form, it covered him and he grew in shape and size by each passing moment and formation of tail after tail behind him. Moments later he was covered head to tail tip in red fur, not the dark orange-red coat that the original Kyuubi had when it attacked the village. Naruto was the new Kyuubi and his power was felt all the way in Konoha. Nine tails swung free and unencumbered behind him.

"I. Uzumaki Naruto, I won't let you harm Konoha!" Naruto declared.

"_**Then let us do battle!**_" the two friends loudly declared and rushed at each other, teeth and claws clashed, while the elements at their control swirled and whirled around them. It was like witnessing those stories about he capabilities of the Bijuu live. Hurricanes, tidal waves, earthquakes, lightning storms, and whatever else disaster that one could or would associate with this class of Being of Chakra were happening in just one spot, one warzone between monsters of their respective villages, both for the defense of their allies.

Konoha-nin were drawn to the source of the unmistakeable chakra that had washed over the village, instead of with hate and destruction, it washed over the village protectively. A comforting blanket to the people of Konoha as strange and frightening as it was to reexperience the feeling fo the chakra all over again.

While the Konoha and Suna shinobi got a bit of a shock and some disbelief mixed into their emotions at the kind of arrival of two chakra behemoths, the Oto-nin were more scared than anything else as their leader hadn't informed them of the possibility of dealing with monsters in this mission of theirs. When they were sure that their leader wouldn't kill them all for disobeying orders they high tailed it out of there, valueing their lives over a single mission, the destruction of Konoha.

"*"

Shiro and the Hokage were battling against two former Hokage and their summoner Orochimaru, they were fighting within a barrier to limit their movement, and the Anbu were simply sitting pretty outside of the barrier trying anything and everything they could think of to get into the barrier save for forcing the roof to crumble below it.

The heir to the Mizu Daimyo throne dished out whatever magical attacks that he could think of from stunners to even killing curses, the green curse didn't affect what was already dead but they caused the dead kages some pain, just a little bit of it.

The Hokage on the other hand was personally dealing with his errant student, one that he should have killed long ago when he still had the chance to as now he was no longer at the peak of his abilities. He had his trusty and personal summon aiding him in his attacks, bojutsu versus kenjutsu, with some ninjutsu in the mix.

Genjutsu would not help either one of them in this fight. It could delay the inevitable stalemate, but that was it, the end of the battle was inevitable.

A thought struck the aged Hokage once he faintly heard Naruto's declaration and the strange yet unmistakeable feeling of a Bijuu's power wash over his beloved village, he decided to do what his predecessor had done to the bijuu that was now residing in the Shinigami's stomach. He would seal his student, or at the very least his student's most prized body parts, his hands, and his dream of learning and using every ninjutsu that there was to learn.

He flashed through the necessary seals, before ending in the one seal that would call on the Shinigami for the technique to be used. He knew that there was a rather large chance of his not surviving to even do anything what with his aged body, but he had to try, in order to protect his precious people, the people of Konoha itself.

The Shinigami was finally able to manifest himself in the battle ground, no longer limited to hover all the fighters that day in parts, he was here, and now behind the Hokage of all people, a warrior that he had seen a few years back aiding Naruto in his struggle to gain the power he was using to keep his friend at bay.

"Shinigami-sama," Hiruzen said, "I offer you my soul in exchange for sealing up my senseis and my student."

"Not gonna happen Sarutobi-sensei," Orochimaru said as he impaled his teacher with his blade, the blade went all the way through, and yet Hiruzen refused to succumb to his fate.

The Hokage moved with speeds that he used to be able to in his youth thanks in part to a boost from the death god, and appeared behind his teachers that were actually managing to tag team Shiro, he thrust his hands through their bodies and pulled out their souls to be consumed by the death god. He then moved in front of his student, he could feel his body start to give way, and so he grabbed hold of his students arms.

"I'm taking your dream from you now," he said as he pulled at Orochimaru's arms, something from within them came away with the seemingly dying man's hands.

"Nooo!" Orochimaru shouted, he needed those arms, while he was sure that he could just use another's body, and arms, his sensei had just delayed the inevitable which was for him to use all the ninjutsu in the world and gain immortality, it was still a pain to proceed with his plans hand and armless. He didn't need handseals to perform a number of jutsu.

The Hokage fell flat on his face a bit comically as Shiro rushed to his side and nodded at the Shinigami's fading form in thanks, checked the Hokage over, then faced the Hebi Sannin.

"Surrender now Orochimaru," Shiro stated with tone that brokered no mercy, "You have taken a Hokage this day from the field of battle, but I shall not permit you to leave intact."

"I am already partially broken," Orochimaru said, "The Old Fool already delayed my dreams, but if he couldn't kill me, what do you think you can do?"

"I stalled the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokages for him," Shiro stated, "I can also kill you, when killing them was rather hard with them already being dead."

"Who are you anyway," Orochimaru asked.

"I am known in some circles as Uzumaki Shiro," Shiro introduced himself, even had the audacity to bow at the once respectable man, "But that is not my only name."

"Well what is it then? Do you not think your killer worthy enough to know the name of his victim?" Orochimaru demanded a bit hurt that he was being looked down upon.

"I am Toukou Jikoku Shiro," Shiro said, "I am the Heir to the Mizu Daimyo throne of Mizu no Kuni, and you will not be able to share that secret with anyone else..._Obliviate!_"

A finger had been pointed at Orochimaru, a thin strand of light shot between the gap of the finger and Orochimaru's head, suppressing the memory instead of obliterating it as the spell was originally created or purposed into accomplishing.

"Well...wait...what the hell did you do to me!" Orochimaru demanded, but before Shiro could say anything else the Anbu appeared around him and the Hokage causing Orochimaru to flee taking his guards with him, along with the rest of the invasionary force that noticed the Oto-nin retreating en-masse.

Naruto's fight had also ended, he simply knocked Gaara out by way of a supercharged Stupefy, it sounded so weird coming out of his kitsune maw too.

"How is he?" one of the Anbu decided to ask Shiro who was checking up on the laying Hokage once more, this time face up on the rooftop, the Anbu feared the worst, which was why they hadn't checked on their leader first before asking Shiro questions.

"He's fine for an old man," Shiro said as he stood up to face the masked men and women, "Summoning Shinigami-sama cost him his title of Hokage, but other than that, he'll be fine. He's been depowered and turned into a civilian when it comes to chakra."

"Oh.." the Anbu collectively more or less said, "Well since you more or less were able to help in beating Orochimaru as well as holding back two former Hokage, we can leave Konoha in your hands while the village is without a Kage."

"Ok," Shiro said, "I guess I can deal with all the paperwork while the old fart rests."

"So...how do we deal with the village at the moment?" the Anbu awaited their orders.

"You can start by taking the old man to the hospital, as well as getting some teams of able bodied men to scour the village for the wounded and dead of both friend and foe alike," Shiro said, "There'll also be a few Kiri-nin in the village probably looking for either myself of Naruto. Don't try attacking them just tell any of them where I am."

"Which is where?" an Anbu asked.

"Up here," Shiro said, "I'll wait here while as we, you lot included, fix up the mess the village has found itself in."

"Hai," the Anbu said, leaving one member behind, Uzuki Yuugao.

Moments later another Anbu landed on the rooftop.

"How did your mission go?" Shiro asked the man.

"Good enough..." the man coughed behind his mask, "I got back at Baki, but he managed to get away just when the Oto forces started running, bastard really knows how to use wind."

"Any word on the two powerhouses that did some mythological battling out in the distance?" Shiro asked.

"I passed by a Chunin team that were taking the Kazekage's children, two of them and two genin over to the Hospital," the masked Anbu reported, "They said something about the charka output out there was too much..." he coughed again, "Was too much for them to not shit their pants off, so they back tracked a bit with their charges."

"Hayate?" Yuugao hesitantly asked.

The new arrival turned to face her and removed his mask, he didn't really need it and he wasn't really a member of Anbu, especially not after his accident.

"Hehe," he said, "Sorry for what I did...there was no other way that wouldn't tip off our enemies that Konoha knew of their intentions."

She removed her own mask and hurled herself at him.

"You bastard," she said as he hugged her comfortingly, "You could have told me, I wouldn't have told anyone. I could have acted like I had lost you still."

"It wouldn't have been real to some of our adversaries," Hayate reasoned.

Their reunion was cut short by the arrival of the rest of Shiro's family, Naruto and Gaara included.

"Sorry to break up this happy moment," Ryoku said, "But some Anbu informed us that Shiro was here."

"I am here Tou-sama," Shiro piped up, "Going home now?"

"I was thinking of petitioning for my heir's return," Ryoku said, "But thinking it over, I think this village would fair a bit better with you around a little bit more."

"Thanks, I think," Shiro said, "But you will be sending for me.."

"Yes," Ryoku replied, "It is inevitable. I've already sent someone to speak with the Hi Daimyo about you and your family. He is happy about it, but at the same time believes that it would benefit inter-country relations if you did eventually come home."

"Ryoku-jiji said that if I get the chance to leave on some sort of training journey," Naruto joined in on the conversation, "I'll be the one to escort you there."

"Alright," Shiro said, "So what happens now? Does Konoha gain an alliance with Kiri from this?"

"It was automatically a given once you married into the Hi no Kuni royal family," Ryoku informed his son, "The alliance will be finalized once the Godaime Hokage is decided upon, Shinigami-kun informed me of what transpired here on the roof."

"Oh," Shiro said, "I can live with that. So will you be leaving now or will you be staying for a few more days?"

"Leaving I'm afraid," Ryoku said, "We only really came for Naruto's fights, as well as to see you, and speak with my fellow daimyo."

"I see," Shiro said, "Well it was good to have been with you here, tou-san."

"I know," Ryoku said, he then faced Naruto, "Grow strong, for when your final battle comes, not all your abilities will be at your disposal."

"I understand Jiji," Naruto said, "Could you check up on Hokage-jii-san before you go?"

"For you, sure," Ryoku said as he teleported off to find the Hokage, Mei bent down a little to give her youngest descendant a hug, which was followed by a friendly grope from the resident pervert of the Seven Swordsmen Usagi.

"Hey Anbu, don't tell anyone I'm friends with the kid," Kisame warned the two awestruck Konoha-nin, "It could ruin my infiltration mission after all. Information on Akatsuki is very hard to come by without an inside man after all."

"Uh..sure..." Hayate said, "But you owe us."

"Cash in that favor if your stuck in Mizu without back-up or whatever," Kisame said, "I'll come to your aid or whatever, haha," he then turned his attention to Naruto, "Get stronger kid, the guys that are after you don't really know about _it _being no longer _there_. So you had better get strong enough to beat 'em, which includes myself, and your grandfather's cousin."

"Sure thing Sushi-san!" Naruto enthusiastically said, the nickname was followed by Kisame running after Naruto ontop of the roof while two Konoha-nin watched Naruto evade Kisame's Samehada in amazement.

"Damn brat," Kisame said after around a quarter of an hour, "If I didn't have to leave, I'd totally catch you."

"Whatever," Naruto said, then waved at the fading form of Kisame who used a special portkey to get back to his parter somewhere else in the Land of Fire.

Only Shiki decided to stay behind, he had already informed his superiors, all three o them of his desire to stay a bit longer, and maybe act as a bodyguard to either Naruto or Shiro.

"So...you're a Kaguya right?" Yuugao asked, finally finding the courage to speak to the Kiri-nin, he seemed like some weird alien species as it was well known in the world that the Kaguya had been wiped out some time ago.

"I am," Shiki said, as he kept an eye trained on Naruto who was speaking with Gaara as they waited for whoever it was that was supposed to get Gaara for his inevitable interrogation appointment, it was just a formality since most Suna-nin that had been captured had told interrogators that Gaara didn't know anything of importance.

"I thought your clan was wiped out," she said.

"It was meant to seem that way," Shiki stoically replied, "Ryoku-sama made it so. Mizu no Kuni only wants peace with the rest of the world, a consequence of the many invasion attempts from Kaminari no Kuni and Hi no Kuni, lead to that, as well as Ryoku-sama's history with the world. While the world may not be able to attain everlasting peace, it can be achieved in small bouts, a small step at a time. A person at a time, a village at a time, a country at a time."

"What are you saying," Hayate said, "Are you saying that Mizu no Kuni spread out all sorts of false information to carve a kind of reputation for itself so that other nations would leave it alone?"

"Precisely," Shiki told the two of them, "Others fear those more powerful than they most of the time. We just made ourselves look like a wildcard, and it did help that we do have some rather powerful allies on our side as well as fighters. Myself included of course."

"So...you know that all that's going to stop once word spreads about the alliance between Hi no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni, right?" Hayate said.

"We are well aware of the consequences of our leaders' decisions," Shiki said, "There is no more time for hiding. Mizu no Kuni will once again join with the rest of the world. While our reputation will be shattered in a way..well...Knowing that the Kaguya clan is still around along with ALL of our bloodline clans, do you think that anyone will dare attack us?"

"Honestly," Yuugao said, "I don't want to think about the potential loss of life that there would be if such a thing happened."

"Mizu still wins with this set up," Shiki said, "It was going to happen anyway, what with Shiro-sama marrying the youngest daughter of the Hi Daimyo, Mikoto-sama."

"She/He's the Daimyo's daughter/son?" the two jounin shouted at the exact same time with similar thoughts coursing through their heads.

"It's all a big conspiracy dating back a couple of years," Naruto interjected just to add a bit of flavor into the grown ups conversation, or so Gaara had suggested, as he tried it on some occasions back in Suna when one of Tenma's clansmen came for a visit or a mission.

"What Naruto-sama said," Shiki said, prompting some more questions to pop into the minds of the two jounin.

"Why did you call him that?" Hayate asked, "I mean, sure he lives with Shiro-san, or Shiro-san lives with him, but why does he warrant such respect from a member of the Seven?"

"Not only is he strong, but he is also of the blood of the royal line of shinobi of this very world we live in," Shiki informed the jounin, the world was going to eventually find out anyway, "He is also of the blood of Mizu no Kuni, of Nami no Kuni as well. In his veins flows the blood of the Uzumaki, the Namikaze, the Saganiki, the Sakujo, the Hyuuga, the Senju, the Uchiha, the Ryuuko, and so much more. What more reason do I have need of to respect this one young shinobi?"

"You didn't have to tell them all that Shiki-nii," Naruto whined that some of his secret was out in the open like that, though he didn't mind that Gaara learned a bit more about him, they were friends after all, even though the sand-user was more a friend of Naruto's oldest in age form, Tenma.

"Yeah, you really didn't need to tell them all of that, Shiki," Shiro said, "They might spread the word sooner than planned, what with tou-san moving changing the plan all of a sudden like he is, its as if he's impatient or something."

"We won't tell," the two jounin said, "Promise."

"I believe you," Shiro said glancing at their thoughts a bit, "Now someone get me some paper, and the Hokage's seal too, there's a bunch of shit I need to write down, as well as orders to be given, and Naruto please escort Gaara to Ibiki then bring yourself and your friend back here once the interrogation is over and done with. I'll be needing all the reliable hands I can get a hold of. Also send over Haru and Seigen...add in any of Fuyu and his friends to that list as well. The next Hokage is going to be who I think the majority of the clan heads and village sector representatives will be choosing, it'll be weird for her to have two citizenships, but whatever, we need this village to be in tip top shape before she gets here, so move!"

"Hai Temporary Hokage-sama!" Naruto said as he grabbed Gaara's wrist and teleported them to right in front of Morino Ibiki who found their sudden appearance rather surprising and he nearly decapitated the two of them on reflex.


	64. Chapter 64

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter sixty-four**_

Any destruction caused during the invasion was repaired by teams of chunin and genin, academy students helped as well, it was the first time in the village history that academy students were exposed to what they would be dealing with when or if they became genin. A humble stepping stone to growing to become what the village's military power was known for producing. The genin didn't complain about it having gotten used to it, but some of the academy students quit the academy finding out that they wouldn't get to be kick-ass from the very start.

Shiro had been busy directing the Anbu and having them be the leaders of the shinobi teams that were running around the village while not on missions for the village's coffers. There was a shortage of veteran ninja in the village, as they needed to show strength especially at this time.

Missions were accepted and teams were sent out, Konoha needed to prove to the world that they were deserving of the title of Great Hidden Village even if they could have used the invasion as an excuse for some poor service for a few months so that they could recuperate.

The Sand Siblings were holed up with their sensei in some a house in the Uzumaki clan land, they were there while a new alliance treaty was drawn up as a sign of good faith on Suna's end, but they would be returned to their home village, Suna demanded that they be returned, not because of Gaara's human weapon status, but due to the number of people that changed their view of him, and recognized the dream he held ever since first becoming Naruto's friend through Tenma.

Naruto was a real special case when it came to genin, the Sandaime Hokage was among those that participated in the final choosing of who got to be a chunin and who didn't. The vest was given to Nara Shikamaru, Aburame Shino, and grudgingly Sabaku no Gaara. Naruto being who he was was given the rank of Tokubetsu Jounin for the sheer fact that he could kick Gaara's ass and due him surviving Morino Ibiki, there was also the fact that he had also gained a spot in the Bingo Book a day or two after the invasion.

Shiro had sent him and along with the newly minted Chunin on a routine delivery mission, he was still a tokubetsu genin at the time, but the mission didn't really go as planned. It was a kind of field promotion as the two Konoha Chunin had been ordered by the blonde to rush back to Konoha to fetch some reinforcements. Apparently two of the onigumo had managed to find a way out of Konoha and had been terrorizing the outpost that the Konoha-nins were sent out to deliver some suppies to.

The Shinobi stationed at the oupost had been barely holding the things off for the duration of after the invasion, but were too tired to actually kill the things. Naruto held the brutes at bay for the whole time it took for reinforcements to arrive, he used a combination of the Ryokuken and the Kage Bushin no Ken. It was a rather entertaining sight that the recouperating shinobi were honored to witness. The spiders wouldn't have stood a chance had they been just a fourth smaller in size, but they weren't which was why Naruto only managed to only stall until the extermination squad that arrived with lots of bug spray courtesy of Shiro arrived to take care of the demonic things.

He had been promoted on the spot by the Anbu that had arrived, since it was Anbu that normally were sent into the Forest of Death to deal with population growths of any of the rather mutated or demonic inhabitants of that particular training ground.

The Anbu that had decided to promote him, had been given an oral report from the shinobi of the outpost that had watched a genin hold back two monsters of their world, their animal world, bu their world nonetheless. They claimed that it was both scary and fun at the same time, it was like watching an action flick with an unclear ending.

From then on he had been sent on numerous solo missions ranging from delivery missions to far off places within the country to stealing things, and even the occasional remove some bandits from this mortal coil type missions. He had been enjoying his job, especially since he had learned how to cope with killing a long while ago. He knew that it was necessary with his profession, there were also the brief conversation over tea that he had with the Shinigami whenever he killed a lot of people, he was allowed to share his insights with regards to the fate of the recently dead at his hands with the god.

While Shiro dealt with the Hokage side of things, the Village Elders, Clan heads, and whoever else was needed when it came to making the decision of who got to be the next Hokage, including the Sandaime, got to argue on who to place in that position of power. Shiro couldn't afford the station for too long, and the people in charge of the village knew that as they had been told by their Daimyo himself about the budding alliance between Mizu and Hi, as well as the need of an actual Hokage to finalize the alliance between the respective hiddne villages.

When they finally agreed on who it would be the Sandaime had sent for his only student within the village walls to do with the fetching of her. They had chosen Asano Tsunade, though the ones that were not in the know didn't know that she was married to a Kiri Jounin, and thus referred to her as a Senju.

Jiraiya was summoned before the guys that were in charge of selecting a new Hokage, where he was told that he was to fetch Tsunade from wherever she was and convince her into becoming the Godaime Hokage, he was also permitted to bring along anyone he thought of that would make convincing her easier. He chose his godson, a person that he had not really had much personal contact with in quite a long time. Shiro was informed of course, and Jiraiya learned that it was not a good thing to shirk on his duties as godfather to one that had so many important historical people's blood coursing through his veins. Shiro had given him a pounding that he was sure to also receive once he located his teammate since Shiro had told the Sennin where his teammate was located as the white haired man didn't know where she was actually.

When Naruto was summoned by his relative, he was ready for a new mission, what he got was the chance to beat up his godfather who explained that he had other more pressing responsibilities and when he had found out that Naruto was actually being taken cared of, he decided not to butt in on the happy life that Naruto actually had. He still got beat up by a Bijuu powered jounin though.

The Sannin and the Jounin left the village soon after, getting to Kiri was easy as pie since all Naruto needed to do was summon Gamabunta who was happy to help Naruto get to Kiri, though getting Jiraiya wet in the process by dropping him into the pearl farm was an added bonus once he learned that he had ignored the fact that Jiraiya was Naruto's godfather.

Naruto was let down by Gamabunta on the ground but was immediately pounced on by several Kiri Jounin that had heard about his rapid rise in the Konoha ranks, and decided to see for themselves if he deserved said promotion. Gamabunta decided to stay so he transformed into his human form to watch the proceedings while some pearl farmers helped Jiraiya out of the lake and who had also informed him that he shouldn't really worry all that much about his godson, what he did have to worry about was the Mizukage who got wind of his shirking his responsibilities as a godfather. When you piss off the Godaime Mizukage, you can be sure that you'll be getting a one way trip to the Hospital. Which was indeed what he did get once she found him.

The brawl as it was called by the locals was a rather long one since many of the local shinobi didn't really _think_ Naruto was ready for such a promotion and the responsibilities such a promotion held. So they simply jumped back or joined the fray, it was a clone army versus Kiri's army. It was quite a sight to behold, even more so since Takeshi decided that his afternoon nap wasn't worth the amount of noise that Naruto's arrival had generated, and when a former Anbu Commander decides to join the fray, his former subordinates were sure to follow.

No one was really taking the fight seriously, but some really did want to see how much Naruto had grown, and when he began to dish out the kinjutsu, that's when some people decided that enough was enough and some were even wondering if Naruto knew about the things that he could do to activate the village's emergency stuff.

The brawl stopped at around dinner time since most got a bit hungry at that time, and some were rather freaked out when Naruto decided to pull some bucket tricks on the more senior shinobi, the likes of which were rather legendary since the only person ever really known to use such things was the Yondaime Mizukage himself.

"I'm sorry to inform you that Tsunade left some days ago for a little vacation," Mei informed her descendant and his companion who still cringed whenever she looked in his general direction, "Todoh went with her of course as did Shizune, and their children Tobi and Izuna, twins I might add and quite a handful even though they are no longer really children."

"What are they then?" Jiraiya couldn't help but ask.

"They're quite the young men with a number of fangirls after them," Mei replied.

"So where'd they go baa-chan?" Naruto asked, he was the only one at the moment that could safely call her that to her face and not get steam rolled into the E.R..

"Hi no Kuni surprisingly," Mei replied, "Something about visiting a gambling city or something ilke that. You never really can tell with that family."

"I wonder how Konoha's gonna take the news that their Hokage candidate is a kunoichi of another village.." Naruto wondered out loud.

"I figured that that was the reason you came looking for her," Mei said, "Though I guess Ryo-kun's hint on it was something I should have looked into as well. I've already drawn up her resignation papers, though she'll still hold citizenship, Todoh's as well, though his are more of a transfer to another village type of thing, and their kids aren't shinobi, they're samurai actually which isn't all that surprising since our academy failures grow up to either become some sort of craftman, artisan, or soldier in some way."

"Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever actually met Tsunade or her kids before," Naruto said, "And I've met quite a lot of people in this country already."

"Yes you have," Mei said, "She was the nice doctor that gave you that check up that one time Shiro-kun decided you have one."

"Oh yeah," Naruto said remembering that incident, it was also the first time he had ever witnessed Zabuza flee in terror at the sight of an octopus, "Yeah, I think I remember that..hehe," he chuckled a bit a the memory associated with that particlar visit, witnessing one of the most feared men in all the elemental continent run screaming like a little girl after his wife decided to show him her new pet octopus had been hilarious, though understandable.

"Well, if there's nothing else you need, I need to get back to work," Mei said, "Even though I really would like to spend more time with you Naruto-kun."

"That's alright Baa-chan," Naruto said, "I can always just hop on over here when I'm on leave or something. So see ya!"

He got a hug in return for his kind and considerate words courtesy of his ancestor, he hugged her in return, and had to drag his godfather out of the room, and the Tower since the man began to drool at a similar memory, but one that wasn't supposed to be remembered in the vicinity of a woman that had a husband whispering in her mind the things that Jiraiya was imagining at the time.

"Ryoku-jiji wanted to see how much of a will to live you have," Naruto told the Sennin, "He was whispering things in Baa-chan's mind while you remembered whatever it was you were remembering."

"How do you know that gaki?" Jiraiya asked his companion.

"I just know," Naruto said, "It's really weird is what I can say. Ryoku-jiji's weird like that."

"So...how do you propose we find Tsunade now?" the Gama Sennin asked the blonde.

"Well the easiest way would be to ask her personal summon," Naruto said.

"Alright, and how do you propose we do that? You haven't signed the Slug Contract by any chance have you?" Jiraiya wasn't all that in the know about Ryoku's family.

"I haven't signed it," Naruto said.

"Then how are we supposed to contact Katsuyu?" Jiraiya asked.

"Like this," Naruto said, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Katsuyu!"

A moment later Katsuyu in human form stood before the duo of shinobi.

"How might I be of service Naruto-sama?" Katsuyu asked.

"Konoha sent us to find Tsunade, you know where she is?" Naruto asked.

"Tanzaku Gai," Kaysuyu replied, since all summons knew where their summoner was, save for where Ryoku's family members were since there was no contract signed, though the members' personal summoners did have some clue.

"Thanks for the info," Naruto said, "Any chance that you could send us to more or less where she is?"

"It would be my pleasure," Katsuyu said, and motioned for Naruto and Jiraiya to hop on, after the slug reverted to massive slug form.

The move to Tanzaku Gai was a rather quick one, and with a final bow the Slug Boss returned to the home of the Slug Summon Clan.

"So what do we do now?" Jiraiya asked the knowledgeable jounin.

"We search for your teammate, or rather you do the searching," Naruto said, "I'm gonna find us somewhere to stay and maybe beat up on some nuke-nin while you do your part of this mission."

"I don't think you should be thinking about fighting nuke-nin at such an important time," Jiraiya said, but he only then noticed that Naruto had already walked away waving goodbye to him, "At least let me show you a jutsu to help if you do stumble upon some fight!"

That stopped Naruto in his tracks, new jutsu from the dude that taught his own old man, he was happy, and so decided that maybe their mission could wait a while since his baa-chan didn't expect Tsunade to even think about going back to Kiri for a while since her family had taken all they would miss with them on their journey.

Jiraiya decided to make up for his shirking his duties by gaining Naruto's forgiveness, which he had already gained but didn't know it yet, by bribing the teen with some jutsu. This first one being the teen's father's Rasengan.

Naruto saw how it was done, broke it down, and had his clones train in the mastery of it. When he was done with that he went on to experiment with it, and see if he could replicate what his grandather on his father's side had done with the original technique, and he also had some clones see about making it better. The training took about a week, and during that time Jiraiya shared what knowledge he had on some kinjutsu that were not written down on scrolls.

It had taken a week for Naruto to remember the mission that they were on, though a part of him wanted Shiro to suffer through the horrors of paperwork since the man had actually forgotten about the use of clones or magic that could potentially speed up his work and lessen his workload. There was also a part of him that actually wanted a break from all the missions he had been on lately, as it was not only his core form that had missions, but all his forms. There was just something in the world that made sure that none of his forms had been able to really take a break. From Haru, to Seigen, to Tenma, and finally to Fuhen.

He needed a break from all the work he had been doing, and he didn't know it until he had had his break. While he thought missions were sort of fun in some cases, boring in other, and utterly depressing in those rare few ones, he had found that he actually missed just training or resting for that matter. Jiraiya didn't know how grateful Naruto was for his little attempt at bribery, but Naruto was grateful.

It took Jiraiya a good solid week, giving Naruto another week to do whatever he wanted to do, to locate his teammate, he had forgotten to look underneath the underneath, since his teammate and her family had been under henge the whole time that he was looking for them. Tsunade had had her sons shadow the Toad Sennin as soon as she caught sight of him nearing the city.

Her boys weren't able to find out anything other than he had a partner with him. She guessed she would have to hear the reason he had been searching for her at such a time from the Super Pervert himself, and so sent her apprentice to him about setting up a meeting.

With the meeting time set, Jiraiya spent the rest of his free time locating Naruto only to find the jounin at a casino and making a ton of money from it without breaking a sweat of being charged with cheating. He had the audacity to claim that he didn't know what he was doing actually. So Jiraiya informed him of the meeting which got Naruto all serious all of a sudden, and thus got the casino owners to relax and breath sighs of relief that the Gambling God had decided to leave. Finally.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Tsunade asked her teammate, one which she hadn't seen for such a long time, Orochimaru she had actually seen recently about a month ago really, he had left with a promise to return for her answer to a question or a request more like.

They were found in a bar in the city, one with a lot of different kinds of sake.

"I have been sent on behalf of Konoha to inform you that you have been selected as Godaime Hokage," Jiraiya informed her, "So how about it?"

"No," was her simple reply, "I heard what happened to sensei, I'm not going back to that hell hole, especially not after what I heard that place do to Minato and Kushina's kid, your godson I might add."

"Huh? What did they do to him?" Jiraiya asked, he wasn't aware of the village having done anything to Naruto to warrant such distaste from Tsunade.

"They turned him into their secret weapon that's what," Tsunade said, "I heard about it from Orochimaru."

"Now now Tsunade-chan," Todoh said, "I've already told you that that can't be true, that the hebi-teme was lying to you. He doesn't know squat about the fate of Naruto-sama."

"Are you sure we're talking about the same Naruto, Todoh-kun?" Tsunade asked her husband for many years.

"He is," Naruto decided to make his presence known to her, "I'm no village weapon, just another shinobi, a tool maybe, but not an outright weapon for the village to point in their enemies direction. I am my own person, and I am most likely stronger than the last time you saw me."

"You are claiming to be Uzumaki Naruto?" Tsunade questioned him.

"I am not claiming to be him," Naruto said, "I am Toukou Jikoku Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto. Such a long name considering I'm the youngest member of all said clans, though there're a few more to add to that list though."

"See I told you that hebi-teme was lying," Todoh said, "So why don't you accept the position, hmm?"

"Why are you so intent that I take on the role of Hokage anyway Todoh, what do you get out of it?" Tsunade asked her husband, "I mean by my accepting you'd have to come with me as well, and it could prove problematic with village relations, and you could be considered as a traitor to the village."

"Actually the Mizukage already thought about that and already prepared the resignation forms for you Tsunade, and the transfer forms for Todoh-san," Jiraiya said as he brought out said forms for the two of them to see, "See."

"These have to be fake," Tsunade didn't want to believe that it could be that easy.

"Baa-chan prepared them, she's also the one that informed us of your whereabouts," Naruto informed her, "So how about it? Godaime Hokage doesn't so like such a bad job, especially considering that your own sensei thought that you would make a great Hokage."

"My sensei is dead gaki, Orochimaru claimed that the old man died fighting against him," Tsunade said.

"He's alive, not able to be a shinobi any longer, but alive nonetheless," Naruto informed her, "He even knows that you're married."

"Well?" Todoh asked his wife, "It would really be quite the addition to our little vacation you know. Plus I've always thought that you'd want to start up a better medical programme in your home village like you did for Kiri."

"I'll think about it," Tsunade said, "I'll give you my answer after I've given Orochimaru my answer to his own question."

"Does he know that you're married?" Naruto asked, "Cause I've got this feeling that you've only stalled meeting with him again to be able to think of ways to pummel him into mush for insinuating something that he knows nothing about."

"You'll have to wait and see won't you," Tsunade said.

"I guess I will, won't I," Naruto said, "Hey, if you do decide to fight Orochimaru, can I have a go at him? I really could use the workout."

"How about I say no," Tsunade said, "But if you can surprise the hebi-teme I'll give you something precious of mine, that I've let no other wear, how about it?"

"What's that? And you had better not say your underwear, I'm not sure your hubby'd mind me having a set," Naruto joked.

"I have a necklace passed on to me from my grandfather," Tsunade said, "Truthfully I've been looking for a more worthy owner of it, and if you can surprise Orochimaru, I'll give it to you. Not many can get that man to obtain a shocked or surprised look after all."

"You got a deal Tsunade-sama," Naruto said, "But I'd still like my shot at the guy for having Saru-jiji have to go and ruin his ability to protect the village, though I guess he could still fight off some poorly trained chunin if he really put some effort into it."


	65. Chapter 65

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter sixty-five**_

It took some time for Orochimaru to decide to show up. He actually did bring a lot more help with him other than Kabuto as he had had a feeling that he would need the extra man power to subdue his former teammate if she decided to not accept his offer and grant his request. It was a good thing that he had brought in some added reinforcements since as soon as Tsunade tried to kill him for his lies, since he wasn't really going to bring back the dead to life again, a number of unexpected people showed up.

His base load of support made their presence known as well, and so the battle was waged. The fighters decided that the closed space of the city was too narrow for them to fight in and gladly took their fight to the plains.

It was Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Todoh, against Orochimaru, while the Oto-nin, a base load of them, plus Yakushi Kabuto faced off against two samurai, Asano Tobi and Asano Izuna, and Naruto.

The Sannin and Todoh started off their battle on land, it was kind of difficult at first to find the right rhythm, but once it was found, the fight turned into one of the deadliest dance competitions in the world. It was like ballet for murderers and baby killers. But Naruto and his two older companions didn't let their eyes watch the battle, they flowed into one of their own with the base load of Oto-nin who had Kabuto leading them.

The four old people were evenly matched, sort of. Tsunade, Todoh, and Jiraiya had to worry about harming an ally, while Orochimaru didn't care who he hurt in their dance of death. None of the four of them had had a really exciting fight in a long while, and while it was a deadly game they played, they were enjoying it nonetheless along with some witty banter in the mix.

While the four older people were having a ball trying to not get killed by one another intentionally or accidenatlly, Naruto and his two companions were busily squaring off against the Oto force. Kabuto shouting out orders before going against who he deemed to be the strongest of the bunch. Naruto.

Never underestimate what a slight in honor can do to a samurai, since looking down on the two brothers Kabuto found himself fighting for his life in a fast paced fight against two enraged blondes, both of whom had unmistakeably inherited their mother's temper.

That left Naruto to deal with the rest of the Oto force. He brought out the Kage Bushin no Ken, and began spamming punches, kicks, and clones left, right, center, up, down, diagonal, and whatever way he could. It kind of scared the Oto-nin, but they thought that he would run out of gas soon and they also had numbers of their side, even if he did have those clones of his.

Naruto was limited to his close range skills since there were too many friendlies that could be caught in any of his AoEs. It was a good thing that he had gotten himself very famliar with the Rasengan, along with tweaking it a little bit. Also, if worse came to worse, he could really call upon an army of his own, and not the clone kind. But he couldn't do that until he surprised the Hebi Sannin.

Without his big guns and his army, Naruto stuck to using the Rasengan to great effect, having some of his clones actually perform elemental version of it was great too. Clones with Rasengans burst forth from within him and his chakra, and they went sailing over to the Oto-nins that began to actually worry about the outcome of the battle. While they didn't really all care that much about one another, they did care about their lord's wrath should they fail to subdue Naruto and company.

Naruto had actually managed to figure out how to throw the ball of swirling chakra, and with the elemental shadow clones hurling their own versions of the thing. It made for a very disturbing sight, and the reality finally hit the Oto-nin when a large number of them were hit simultaneously by multiple balls of spinning energy.

One shinobi was nearly drowned, electrocuted, burnt, cut up as if he'd been hit by lots of paper edges, and bowled over by a bowling ball all at the same time. It was a pretty disturbing sight for his comrades around him. Even Naruto almost blanched at the sight of what he had done. When the original Rasengan hit the same man, it was pretty bad, all that was left of the unfortunate man was his forehead protector.

"Y-Y-You monster!" one Oto-jounin screamed as he ran at Naruto with Kunai in one hand and the other flying through half seals and finally breathed out a condensed beam of flame in Naruto's direction. Then all hell really broke loose.

Naruto really didn't really like to be called a monster, no one really did enjoy it all that much, and to hear someone that he had been fighting was really bad in a sense since the man didn't even know him all that well or know him at all. They were fighting, their were opponents, and Naruto was sure that the man had probably done something just as bad in the service of Orochimaru. But he guessed that the man didn't really take those things into consideration.

But Naruto really didn't like to be called a monster. He wasn't a monster, he was just doing his job, and was also protecting his precious people in the process. Sure it was a man's life, but he really didn't have anything to feel guilty about, the Shinigami had told him as much just as the man died. He had no living family to mourn him, he didn't have that many friends since he had stabbed most of the ones he did have in the back, he had done a bunch of nasty things in Orochimaru's name. He along with every other Oto-nin in the force were some of Orochimaru's meanest men, and now one of them was calling him a monster.

He would not stand for such a thing. He couldn't. So he did something that he'd never though he'd ever do. He turned them all into music instruments. Human transfiguration wasn't really his strong point, or transfiguration at all for that matter, except for his own body and some of those that could already naturally undergo such transformations. But from people to non-living objects, well, he hadn't actually had much practice in that field.

But the results spoke for themselves, sure he had to uncover his eye for a bit, but the results were worth it. All manner of musical instrument was laying on the ground with forehead protectors securely in place as markers for all to see who they belonged to. Orochimaru upon seeing the sight grew pissed of and called Kabuto over to him for a summoning to be made possible.

The Jounin in question snaked his way around and away from his two opponents who had not been prepared for their opponent to retreat to his master's side. The jounin had been rather strong and skilled, and even better than them, they began to think that maybe it was time to fight the way their parents did, if they were to fight such a man once again.

No one present knew how Naruto had done what he had done, but it was so amazing and scary, but the twins Tobi and Izuna could only think of one thing from their childhood that could explain the phenomenon: Magic. It was as if Naruto had performed some honest to Kami magic right before their very eyes, and instead of some staff, crystal, wand, or whatever, all he did was temporaily remove his eye patch.

'_What the hell was that?_' all the people older than Naruto that were still people wondered in their minds.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Orochimaru called out, followed by his two ex-teammates. Todoh didn't summon anything.

Konoha's three major summon bosses stood before one another with their supposedly primary summoners perched on their heads.

"It looked like the perfect time for this," Orochimaru said, "Kukukuku."

"We can take you on easy," Tsunade said.

"I can't believe you're so weak that you'd summon Manda in your state," Jiraiya mocked.

"You are so screwed Orochimaru," Todoh added, "You have just royally screwed yourself."

"What are you talking about trash?" Orochimaru demanded.

"HEY MANDA! GET OVER HERE! I'VE FOUND YOU SOME MUSICAL SNACKS!" Naruto shouted with the help of a sonorous to enhance his volume.

"You're on your own Orochimaru," Manda said before slitering over to Naruto, leaving both Orochimaru and Kabuto hanging in mid air for a brief moment, before they plummeted to the ground with shocked and surprised looks on their faces. The regained their composure and summoned up a stone pillar to stand on just as Manda rose back to his standing position but this time with Naruto on his head of all people. Two large wolves had been summoned to raise the twin and Shizune into the air, Shizune wasn't permitted to fight since they needed her as a just in case medic.

"How in the world?" Tsunade asked, voicing the thoughts of those no in the know, Todoh had never really shared that little fact with his wife deeming it unimportant. He was now glad that he hadn't, his children were also unaware of it.

"He's a descendant of all Summons' teacher," Todoh supplied for her, "Even Katsuyu-sama will answer his call unflinchingly."

"So that's how he did that.." Jiraiya said finally understanding."

"We're leaving Kabuto," Orochimaru ordered his most loyal subordinate and they both left just as their clothes had been turned into frilly ballerina costumes by an amused Naruto.

"You could have at least transfigured Kabuto into a butt plug," Manda told Naruto.

"Yeah, I could have," Naruto agreed, "But that would have been just plain creepy."

"I guess you do have a point there," Manda noted, "Should I slither on over to your allies now?"

"Sure thing, once we're done here you should pop on over to Haru's place," Naruto said, "There's some major pranking that needs doing."

The serpent slithered its way to the other summons, the wolves stalking close behind him.

"Who's the unlucky clan this time?" Manda asked.

"Why, the Nara of course, minus Shikamaru," Naruto replied, "He's not the laziest of the bunch anymore."

"I suppose," Manda said, "Alright, I'll pop on over there once we're done here."

#

Needless to say Tsunade accepted the position of Hokage. When they got back to Konohagakure no Sato they were met with quite the welcoming committee. Shiro himself was at the gate with him was a stack of paperwork that he was looking over with one eye, signing with one hand, while a Chunin held the pages up. His other hand and eye were also occupied, the eye keeping a lookout for Naruto and company, while his hand was busy sending out orders via sign language to the Anbu that he had set up a schedule to appear at the gate. They were being sent on missions since the Godaime had yet to actually take up her seat and title of power.

Also at the gate was the Sandaime himself, and with him his grandson, and where the grandson of the Sandaime sometimes went within the village Haru was sometimes there to be found as well. His sort of babysitting had turned into a bodyguard and teacher mission of sorts, not that he minded the little guy. They were kindred spirits when it came to pranking after all. Seigen was there as well, along with some of his clansmen, they were going to see if they could mess with the coming Hokage's luck a little bit.

There were some others as well, but they were unimportant.

Some assassins had been sent by some people that opposed the Hokage-to-be, but all those would be killers and murderers had been put out of their misery thanks to Naruto being bored and accidentally and unknowingly killing them in his acts of boredom which consisted of origami shuriken into the green that surrounded them on their trek home, he had forgot to not add any wind chakra into his play time. He had even managed to slice off Hidan the Jashin Priest's head off with one of those things and he didn't know about it, nor would he ever know about it unless Ryoku deemed that he should know about it.

When the group of nin finally arrived at the gate Shiro prompty stood up and nodded in the direction of the arrivals, and ordered the Chunin to return the paperwork to the Tower where he would make sure that Tsunade finished it up. She was used to the strain of paperwork what with her heading the hospital of Kiri for so long after all.

"Finally," Shiro said as he approached the group, followed by the rest of the welcoming committee, "I'd apologize for the small crowd, but we had to keep your arrival all hush hush, Tsunade."

"That's understandable I guess," Tsunade said, "But how will the village react to the knowledge that I am no longer a full fledged Senju?"

"They shall cope with that information as well as the fact that you had been living in Kiri for the longest time," Shiro said, "The village would have to accept that their Godaime Hokage has some rather close ties to Kirigakure now that the alliance can be finalized."

"You look somewhat familiar," she told him.

"I should," Shiro said, "My older brother is a jounin of Kiri, my mother was your boss, and my father her boss."

"You're Toukou Shiro!" she exclaimed, Todoh and their two sons were already kneeling.

"I am," he replied, "I have been serving as your temporary stand in as Hokage. It was a pleasure, and I now know why my father loves paperwork so much. Well, since you're finally here, I would like to be the first one to say that by your being here already means that I'm out of my temp job and you get to have fun at the office with all those papers that need to be read over, signed, and whatnot."

"You didn't like the paperwork as much as you're saying did you," she said, not asked, but said.

"Alright, I found it rather irksome at times, but I learned to cope," Shiro said, "But I am sorry to say that I am not permitted by some higher powers to reveal to you the secret that was used to speed things up a little. Even now your sensei curses me for not thinking of it himself and had to actually wait for someone to explain it to him, sort of."

"I've tried to actually curse him, but apparently I lack a certain connection to the supernatural forces which he apparently has," the Sandaime told his student, "It's a very troublesome art, one with very few, if any, boundaries."

Naruto's companions turned to face him.

"So that's what you did," they said as one.

"What did you do gaki?" Shiro asked.

"I turned these Oto guys into musical instruments, then had Manda eat them," Naruto said, "He told me later on that they tasted like Beethoven or something like that."

"Well, that's rather interesting to learn," Shiro said, "Maybe I'll try something a bit more imaginative if I ever run into something that wants to kill a friend again."

"You consider me a friend? After all I've done to you?" the Sandaime fake cried, "I'm so happy I could die!"

"**That can be arranged,**" the voice of the Shinigami suddenly entered the conversation as his body slowly faded into view, "**I've gained a liking to Soul de Hokage. You know, if you really are prepared to pass on, I won't mind at all.**"

"I was kidding! Kidding!" the Sandaime bolted upright and prepared to flee, what stopped him was the sound of laughter coming from none other than Naruto himself, who was actually rolling on the floor laughing his head off almost literally too.

"**That was fun, having been a part of a prank in lifetimes,**" the Shinigami said, high fived a still laughing Naruto, did the same with a smirking Haru, then Konohamaru, and promptly faded away back to his 24/7 job as god of death.

"Someone please tell me that did not just happen," Tsunade pleaded.

"I'm sorry kaa-san," Tobi said, "But that did indeed happen."

"I saw Daimyo-sama kick him in the balls and through one of the castle walls once," Izuna added, "It was the scariest thing I'd ever witnessed."

"I remember that incident," Shiro chimed in, "Tou-san allowed himself to get plastered that one time, and the Shinigami dared him to kick him in the nads, kaa-san told me about it."

"Ok...you know what, lead me to the mountain of paperwork I'm sure is waiting for me," Tsunade said, "I've had enough of this weirdness for one day, I even imagined that there was a talking head on the way here."


	66. Chapter 66

Disclaimer: This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. Also features Naruto which is owned by Kishimoto. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.

Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.

Note 1: AU.

**POWER**

_**chapter sixty-six**_

It was rather a rather odd sight that greeted Naruto as he left his lands, as he was met with the visages of none other than Shikamaru and Chouji. Shikamaru looked annoyed while Chouji didn't really look like he had a care in the world as he ate from his bag of chips.

"S'up?" Naruto asked.

"Uchiha Sasuke decided to leave the village along with some Oto-nin," Shikamaru informed him, "I'd've thought that since you live with him, you'd have already found him missing."

"Nope," Naruto said, "He hasn't really crossed my mind this whole time. I've had so many other things occupying it. I thought he was off training or something..." he paused for a moment as a thought struck him, "I've got this feeling that Shiro-jii and Mikoto-baa-chan, aren't going to be happy about this...more Mikoto-baa-chan...so we going after the teme?"

"Yes," Shikamaru said, "I'm forming a team, you and Chouji are all I've got so far."

"We can swing on by the Hyuuga compound," Naruto said, "Neji's there, so are a bunch of other people that we might be able to convince to tag along."

"How do you...nevermind," Shikamaru said, "Let's just go."

They made their way to the Hyuuga compound in no time at all, once there they were led to where Haru was lazing about with Konohamaru doing his homework a few feet away with Hanabi. Seigen was also present but he was snoozing nearer to the two children. Neji was present as well, keeping an eye on the two children since Konohamaru was known for becoming a bit of a troublemaker even in the presence of Haru.

"What does the Hyuuga clan owe the pleasure of your visit Nara-san?" Haru lazily asked, one could have sworn that he must have had some Nara in him with the way he was speaking so dispassionately.

"I've got a time limit to gather a team to retrieve the last Uchiha," Shikamaru informed the clan head, "Naruto suggested we come by here to gather Neji and anyone else able to come with."

"Do you have the mission details?" Haru asked.

"Retrieve the last Uchiha at all costs," Shikamaru said, "Hokage's orders, the team is to do all it can to get the Uchiha back into this village, mission failure is attained if the Uchiha manages to get past the border, we are not to pursue him if he gets past the border even by an inch.."

"Understood," Haru said, "I am assuming that you have been given the leadership role in this mission."

"Hai," Shikamaru unflinchingly replied, "I have."

"Very well then," Haru said as he gracefully took to his feet, he snapped his fingers and Seigen stood up as well, fully awake and aware of his surroundings, "Hanabi, Konohamaru, inform Hiashi that I am leaving the clan in his and his brother's capable hands for the time being."

"Hai, Haru-sama," Hanabi replied.

"Hai, Haru-sensei," Konohamaru replied.

Both children ran out of the room in search of Hiashi knowing that after hearing the full situation that they needed to get away from the area and do as they were told.

"Neji," Haru said, getting his co-Hyuuga's attention, "Locate Inuzuka Kiba, I believe he's on leave right now and would be able to come along, we'll meet you at the..."

"Main gate," Shikamaru supplied, "In fifteen minutes, not a second later."

"Hai," Neji said before promptly leaving.

"Then you will be coming with us," Shikamaru said, "Good, I'd've thought that there wouldn't be any available jounin in the village."

"The Hokage can't keep track of all of us so soon," Haru said, "And clan heads are normally viewed as being rather busy with clan affairs to be bothered at times such as these, where the village has yet to truly recover."

"I understand," Shikamaru said, "Shall we go then? We have a deadline to meet after all."

"Have you informed whoever you need to inform about this mission already?" Haru asked.

"The less people know about it now, the better," Shikamaru said, "Not really part of the orders, but I figured it was what the Hokage must have forgotten."

"Understandable," Haru said, "Seigen and myself shall meet you at the gate."

"Thank you," Shikamaru said as he left the room and the two clan heads, Chouji and Naruto walking close behind him. He didn't know that he was just talking to another part of Naruto, and niether he nor Chouji had noticed that Naruto and Seigen had gained glazed looks while Haru had been speaking.

Shikamaru's team met at the village's main gate with time to spare. That time was spent planning, and returning home for some additional equipment. They met back at the gate with enough time for some last minute planning and instructions. With their planning done and their formation finalized, they signed out and left the village in the direction that the last Uchiha was supposedly heading, according to Seigen's luck manipulation anyway. Shikamaru didn't want his team blessed with luck of the gods since he believed that something could actually go wrong.

They took to the trees to move faster, leaping from branch to branch, while Kiba kept his, and Akamaru's, noses on the scent of the last Uchiha, their sense of smell was heightened further with a little help of chakra and some magic. Neji and Haru were in charge of keeping a lookout as they ran through the trees. Seigen simply kept pace with his other bodies, and also made their luck a bit better, as for some reason some of his manipulation abilities were being limited somehow. Naruto and Chouji simply ran with Shikamaru.

They eventually caught up with their target, Haru spotted them first, and informed the group. Shikamaru ordered them all to stop. They needed to formulate a plan of action, but before any plan could be made they were counter-ambushed by those that they had meant to ambush. The last Uchiha was whisked away in a large barrel where he was to incubate in a way and be reborn somewhat.

The retrieval team was trapped temporarily inside some kind of earth dumpling that was draining their chakra every passing moment.

It would have eventually drained them dry had Naruto not remembered that he could teleport, and his teleportation was not hindered by chakra constraints and thus transported the whole team a few yards away from the brute that decided to try and eat away at their energy.

"I'll stay and keep this fatass busy," Chouji decided, "You guys go on ahead. I promise to see you guys once this mission is over."

"You had better Chouji," Shikamaru told his friend, before leading his team away from the Akimichi and the fatass Jirobou.

Neji decided to hold back Kidomaru, the spider-like Oto-nin. Kiba and Akamaru took on Ukon and Sakon, the symbiotic siblings. Shikamaru decided to take on Tayuya, while ordering Naruto and his other forms to move on with the mission. The real heavy hitters were needed on the front lines after all.

Naruto didn't question the Nara's judgement, the two others' reactions were what briefly surprised Shikamaru as they did not question him either. Trusting in his ability to take care of himself.

The trio finally caught up with Kaguya Kimimaro in an open field.

"I see the Sound Four were unable to rid the world of all the pursuers," Kimimaro said, "Your mission ends here with your deaths."

"I think not," Naruto said, as he and his forms formed a triagle formation with Naruto being in the center of the other two, "What makes you think you'll be able to stop all three of us?"

"I don't think, I know I will," Kimimaro stated confidently due to his ability, "I am Orochimaru-sama's second most powerful fighter. What makes you think that you can match my power?"

"I don't think," all three forms said as one, "I know."

"But it isn't we who you should be worrying so much about," Haru stated first.

"There is another that would like to try his hand at swaying you away from Orochimaru," Seigen added.

'_I have encountered Kaguya Kimimaro, is Shiki-nii available?_' Naruto mentally called out to Ryoku.

'_He is prepared to come for his kin, as are some of his other clansmen,_' Ryoku promptly replied, '_They are prepared to go to you at any time. Kimimaro is of the main house, and closely related to Shiki._'

'_I understand Ryoku-jii,_' Naruto mentally said.

"And who would this other be?" Kimimaro said, stallingly, "None will stand in the way of Orochimaru-sama and his wishes. I will not let any stand in the way of Orochimaru-sama's dreams. He who saved me from the darkness, after my clan was killed. He is all I have left, and even as I stand here ready for death, I shall take you down with me before the Shinigami takes my soul due to this confounded illness. Loathe as I am to admit such weakness, you three shall not live to share this information with anyone."

"Well, it seems like you've got your facts wrong," Naruto said, "I know for a fact that you are not the last of your clan. I don't know what happened, but I do know that the Kaguya clan really detest Orochimaru for taking you from them."

"You, the future of the Kaguya clan," Haru said.

"During a time of bloodline clan fueds," Seigen said.

"You were so young from what I heard," Naruto said, "Too young to recall all the details, but young enough to be influenced by a snake."

"I was not lied to by Orochimaru-sama! He took me out of the darkness and brought me back into the light," Kimimaro shouted, losing his cool, "I shall not permit you to bad mouth Orochimaru-sama any further!"

"He's clearly been brainwashed," Naruto noted after briefly scanning the Kaguya's mind, how or where Orochimaru gained some of the Yamanaka kinjutsu was beyond him at the moment, "Stall him, while I summon the Kaguya clan to deal with him."

He didn't really need to voice his orders, but it had become a habit, talking to his other forms that is. It was to keep up appearances that they were different and not the same person in different bodies like possessors fo the Rin'negan. He couldn't help himself, even though he was in the middle of a battle, sure it was just words but it was still a battle already.

Kimimaro didn't waste any more time and pulled out some bones and bull rushed Haru and Seigen. Haru performed the kaiten, while Seigen moved too fast for the Kaguya to keep up. Haru struck and blocked with the jyuuken, while Seigen simply weaved in and around Kimimaro's attacks. They were distracting the Kaguya from the core's summoning.

'_Cleanse yourself of chakra as you peroform this special summoning,_' Ryoku mentally instructed his descendant, '_It was the only one I could find that would allow you to summon such a large number of the living to your side._'

'_I understand Ryoku-jii,_' Naruto replied, he pushed as much of his chakra away, sealing it behhind an ethereal cage, sealing it away, keeping it at bay beneath his skin, and drawing on his magic. The eye behind his eye patch changing from cerulean blue to a sparkling bluish purple hue. From that stage it morphed even further, stabilizing with that color while dark purple lightning flashed in that single orb.

Magic visible burst forth from Naruto's tenketsu startling Kimimaro who hadn't been expecting something like it. It was a rainbow of colors at first before settling in the same color spectrum or range as Naruto's single covered eye. It swirled around him for a moment, then thunder without sound was heard and felt throughout the clearing.

All the way in Kiri, the Kaguya clan stood prepared, the men of the clan were gathered in an open area in preparation for the summoning that was to take place. At their head was their leader, Kaguya Shiki himself.

"Prepare for the battle ahead," Shiki told his clan, "My nephew is within our reach, but the serpent's fangs have sunk deep into him. We must pull him away from the grasp of that monster, and return him to our light. To his family, to his clan. We shall take him back, we shall succeed. My sister's family shall be avenged with the retaking of her son. Is that understood Kaguya?"

"Hai!" a chorus of voices responded.

"My sister took a part of the clan with her all those years ago," Shiki said, "To establish a base of operations for our clan during a time when we were at odds with the Koori. Unsanctioned actions against other Mizu clans, the secret wars that were not so secret after all. Orochimaru struck just after a recent battle taking out all able bodied Kaguya, then took the hidden Kimimaro with him, locking away the memories of his clan. We shall return those missing memories to him. We trained with him all those years ago, when he was still young. Through battle we shall break the chains of servitude and loyalty that Orochimaru has placed on him."

"Hai," the chorus was heard once again.

"Prepare thine selves," Ryoku said fading into view from a fog of dew, "His preparation is near complete. Once there, hesitate not, for _he_ has entered a berseker state. A failsafe is you will, installed by Orochimaru in case one of his tools found out the truth of their origins. Orchestrating the lives of those that held his interest that he might acquire them for his use or fancy. He would not want one of his toys land in the hands of another. Or returned to a previous owner."

"I will have Kimimaro back," Shiki said stonily, "I will have my nephew returned to me."

"Very well," Ryoku said, "Naruto is almost done on his end. Remember, hesitate not."

"Hai," the Kaguya chorused.

A storm cloud of sorts appeared above the Kaguya clansmen, Ryoku stood back to watch how things turned out. It appeared that he was the only person other than the ones being summoned that could perceive the cloud's appearance. It swirled overhead before descending rapidly, forming a visible column of wind. A tornado but without the destructive force that such things were known to have within them. It sucked up the Kaguya, then vanished as if it had never been there.

They reappeared in the world just in front of Naruto, in a massive swirl of mist. Appearing like some mythological group of warriors from the heavens ready for battle, which they were. They sprung into action relieving Haru and Seigen of the burden of stalling the berseker Kaguya who had actually activated the second stage of the curse seal. Having never really encountered it before, Naruto/Haru/Seigen had to test the waters, which was why he really just stuck to stall tactics and distractions to keep Kimimaro away from Naruto and his magical summoning circle.

The Kaguya wasted no time at all, they were a clan of battle, a clan of war. The battlefield was as much as home to them as were their homes with their families. They burst into battle, bones shooting out of the part of their bodies that were left exposed for such purposes. Their shoulders, arms, hands, and some even their faces.

Shiki refrained from bringing with him, his Seven's blade. He struck with a blade of bone, an attack that was expertly blocked by Kimimaro. The other Kaguya crowded around the battling masters, taking pot shots, and attacking when they could. It was a flurry of bones that blew up in front of Naruto's forms. It was beautiful, enchanting, and at the same time frightening.

Their movements were precise, swift, no motion was wasted. Everything was exact. They all moved as one, though there were those that had to compensate for the passion expressed by Shiki as he wanted his nephew back.

"Continue on with your mission Naruto-sama!" Shiki barked as he noticed Naruto staring at the battle of bones, "Your target has already left!"

"H-hai!" Naruto shouted as he turned and ran in the direction that a quick point-me spell had his kunai face. Haru and Seigen following mere moments after. Seigen noticed that his luck manipulation was sealed away by some other force beyond his entirety's comprehending.

"I'm partially sealed off," Seigen said aloud as they ran and neared the Valley of the End where Naruto could sense Sasuke was waiting for him for some reason, "My luck abilities have been cut off. Benten is blind to us."

"I know," Naruto said, "How could I not know, for you and I are one and the same."

"I am still whole," Haru stated, to add to the conversation.

"I am aware of.." Naruto said, but stopped running as he sensed another presence nearby, one that was not familiar to him, he was running on magic, his chakra sealed away for the time being. His other two forms needed no prompting, it was no longer time for dily dallying, or playing around. He needed to really multitask. Others were counting on him.

He dashed on ahead as Haru and Seigen took a slight detour, they would be dealing with the other life form that was near the soon to be battlefield. They soon found themselves face to face with a being that was not all that human. It was a human-plant hybrid of some sort, and spoke with a duality, a dual personality of sorts governed it.

Zetsu.

It was surprised a their arrival and tried to escape, but Haru and Seigen would have none of it. It's cloak of red clouds on a black background was a dead giveaway for who it worked with. Akatsuki. Such a being could not be allowed to leave.

Even with its melding ability, Seigen still ran after it, moving fast enough to seem a ghost. He pursued the creature into the very earth itself. Haru tracking the thing with his eyes, his tenketsu blazing with chakra ready for any attack from anywhere around him, even his blindspot was primed for any need.

The two of them were being led away by Zetsu from the Valley of the End, if he couldn't watch the fight that was to happen, then these intruders on the planned event, couldn't as either. He was not aware of Naruto's abilities to the full, and Naruto had no intention of revealing all of his aces just yet.

"Screw the limits," Haru said, he unsealed his core's chakra and had it flow into his Hyuuga body. For now, Haru was the spiritual part of chakra, Seigen the physical, they were both Naruto's Chakra. He channeled the chakra he had gained from his core into the tip of his pointer finger on his right hand, and when the buildup began to show, as his finger began to bleed, he let it all out through his tenketsu there.

A beam of pure chakra, a visible blue laser like line shot out of his finger and sliced through the earth, and slammed its way thorugh Zetsu, forcing the venus fly trap man out of the ground, Seigen following. He zipped through his opponent's body, taking out the nerves that were keeping the thing's body moving, but making sure to leave whatever was needed to keep the plantman alive.

Zetsu landed in a heap on the ground, as if dead, he lay in one spot motionless. Haru checked his vitals, and found the plantman to still be amongst the living, but what piqued his interest was the creature's advanced healing factor, Zetsu regained his lost faculties in matter of moments as if absorbing new parts from the soil he had fallen upon.

"Your attack failed," Haru informed Seigen.

"I kind of figured that out myself," Seigen said, "Especially after he failed to completely crumple to the ground."

"His body is invulnerable it seems," Seigen said, "He'd just regrow anything I took from him, save for his head I think."

"Probably," Haru said, "But my chakra laser seemed to have caused him some form of discomfort."

"So..do we kill him?" Seigen questioned himself aloud, "Or do we capture him?"

"Such a creature shall continue to evade capture," Haru stated, "We kill him, and take his corpse back with us. We meet up with Naruto to preserve what can be preserved of his mind as well as his body for the Hokage to dissrect when we return home."

Zetsu reformed himself to his full form, as Naruto talked to himself. It would have been strange for anyone else, but to one such as Naruto it was normal by that time already. It wasn't even peculiar. When the one sided conversation was over and done with, Zetsu lauched his attack, while Seigen moved to retrain the plantman, and Haru primed up more lasers and smashed his way into Zetsu with chakra powered jyuuken attacks sending steel pipe blasts of chakra into the hybrid.

The usual finesse displayed even in the most violent of Hyuuga attacks was not present when Haru grasped onto a fraction of Seigen's power and took it for himself. Each solid hit was accompanied by a sonic boom, and it all ended with him falling unconscious beside the truly dead body of Zetsu.

"Looks like my Haru-senpai overdid it," Seigen noted as he poked his more senior in creation form, and so hefted him on one shoulder while he created two Kage bushin to carry the corpse that they had created, '_Hinata-chan's going to kill me for this.._'

As Haru, Seigen, and Zetsu's battle came to a close, so was Naruto's conversation with a reborn Sasuke.

"...So you don't care about any of us," Naruto said, "I see.." he then launched himself at an unsuspecting Sasuke, delivering a solid non-enhanced blow to his friend, "I don't believe that at all!"

"Tch," Sasuke wiped away the blood that had dribbled out of the wound that Naruto had managed to inflict upon him, and stood back up across Naruto from the head of his ancestor Madara, "Believe what you will. I know my purpose, and that is to avenge my clan. The Uchiha clan. I shall kill my brother, and that is all there is to it. If you continue to stand in my way, I will kill you."

"I really can't let you do any of that," Naruto said, "What you think is your purpose is a lie. Stop letting the hate consume you."

"Hate? Its all I have left of my clan," Sasuke said, "Since you can't seem to understand that, you'll have to die."

It was only then that Naruto noticed that black markings had spread out from the mark that had been placed on Sasuke by Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. It spread like a black flame across his housemate's body.

'_Could it be that another curse of that acursed beast had made it into another one of Takeshi's descendants.._' Ryoku thought as he felt a shift in the fate and destiny of the world he was in, he saw the future fade from his view, it clouded over, as if the battle for the future had finally begun, battle that he was destined to fall in.

The Juubi's will had seeped into the soul of the first son of the Sage of the Six Paths. The darkness in the hearts of man had once again found a vessel from which it would congregate with the hope of breaking free into the world and completing the work that its first form had started. The annihilation of all life, and the destruction of the world.

"I won't let you walk down this path," Naruto said with conviction, "I'll bring you back from this darkness that you have cloaked around you. I'll drag you back into the light, even if I have to start by breaking every bone in your body."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Sasuke stated as he got into a fighting stance.

"I won't," Naruto said, "I'll bring you back to the light, and that's a promise of a lifetime!"

"Tch, whatever," Sasuke said, as he suddenly charged up a Chidori and ran at Naruto, something that Naruto had not been expecting, and impaled the blonde with it. He then flung Naruto down to the valley floor before following his former housemate down to the ground.

'_Kami that hurt.._' Naruto thought as his bijuu chakra erupted from its cage and healed him as soon as Sasuke's arm left his body. He was covered in a cloak that looked to be made out of the very night sky but with a more purple hue to it, and the sparkling stars were more blue than any other color. The cloak around him also had the distinct features of a kitsune. It was a meld between magic and bijuu chakra. It also kicked his senses into high gear allowing his body to move just in time to get out of the way of Sasuke's heel drop from such a high height.

"Good, bring out some more power, that I might make your defeat a more pleasureable one," Sasuke spoke, his tone was not one that would ever be associated with someone so young, it was a bit sadistic in and of itself, "I shall crush your spirit by destroying you even with all of your power with these two hands," he said and clenched his fists before launching into forming and sending gouts, balls, and strams of flames at Naruto, "Then I shall erase your body from this world!"

Each fire attack was batted aside or transformed into cotton candy, ruining the badass effect of fighting fire with magic. Naruto sent clouds of burning ash Sasuke's way, which the Uchiha dodged knowing that something bad could have happened to him had he been hit by the clouds.

They didn't trade any blows close range since Sasuke had some minor doubts about his ability to actually draw blood from the cloaked Naruto. He noted that at least Naruto hadn't entered into that crazy lazy taijutsu stance of his.

He soon began to think that perhaps Naruto was taking him seriously, even more seriously than the rather lazy looking taijutsu needed one to be. He spammed clones, different ones, and attacked him en masse. It was insane, and anyone could see that Naruto was intent on really breaking a lot of bones and keeping him alive somehow.

Sasuke was forced to dodge, evade, and basically keep on his toes at all times. Moving this way and that way, making sure that nothing actually hit him, especially after he saw what making a clone explode could do to the surrounding area. It was hell when a Hokage Bushin blew up just a few meters away from him, the fireball was huge.

Naruto wasn't taking any chances, nor was he pulling any punches. He was hitting Sasuke with almost everything he got, he had a feeling that it wasn't time to unleash his uncovered eye on his former housemate. Not only would it attract unwanted attention, but it just wasn't time to unleash such magnitude of power.

The Valley of the End, had anyone actually been there to witness the battle, would have likened the place to what the end of the world might have looked like. It was like a sneak preview to the end of the world itself, what with almost all manner of elemental attack being spammed all over the place, and what with the random things Naruto was turning whatever Sasuke flung at him into.

Time manipulation was out of the question, some higher power, had locked that ability away from him for the time being. Luck manipulation had been taken from him temporarily as well. He would have used nature manipulation, but he didn't think that mother earth would have taken it so well at the time, or some such nonsense.

The two fighters eventually sprung even further away from one another. Naruto on the side closest to the border as he had managed to get Sasuke closer to the direction of Konoha. They were panting a bit, both a little bit winded from their constant movements and use of their energies. It was a taxing battle, one which neither of the two could afford to back down from.

"Enough fooling around!" Sasuke shouted and began to draw on even more power from the seal that he had been given, the black markings soon covered his entire body, then a pair of hand like wings burst from his back, ripping through his shirt, his eyes too changed by gaining a golden color, a color similar to Orochimaru's very own, "I've wasted enough time on you. I'll let you have honor of being the first to fall by this new power!"

Not letting Naruto power up, Sasuke beat his wings and shot forward like a bullet, he had unknowingly used chakra to propel himself forwards faster. He channeled chakra to each hand forming Chidoris, and when he was close enough extended his attacks. But instead of intending to impale Naruto, he intended to rip into Naruto thinking of the Chidoris as saws more than spears to be plunged into a body.

Having sealed away his chakra and having nearly used up the sealed regular volume in his Haru form, his healing factor wasn't that fast in getting him back into fighting condition. This made it possible for Sasuke to actually hit the blonde. The attacks not only slammed the blonde into a canyon wall but also managed to turn him into a bloody mess.

Sasuke flew backwards having felt that he had succeeded in doing in the blonde. He wanted to gaze upon his work from a distance, admire, what he now decided was to be his art. Killing.

'_Shit...that hurt even more than...well anything I've ever felt before..._' Naruto said to himself as he traversed his minsdscape, the beating Sasuke had delivered having sent him there. He was in far too much pain to contend with consciously thus he was sent into his mind by his subconscious.

He realized as he walked that he had hesitated for far too long. There were no more spies in the area, there was only him and Sasuke in the vicinity of the canyon and in the canyor of the Valley of the End. Through his other forms he knew that the only spy to the fight in the area had been eliminated already.

As he stood just outside of his bijuu power, he hesitated still for a moment, his mind flashing between consciousness and unconsciousness, he flashed between his mindscape and the real world. It had been a minute glimpse of what was going on in real time. He had seen Sasuke smile a smile that did not belong on the the genin's face. Something was definitely wrong with Sasuke. The darkness had consumed him. He had also seen his clan's friend in the ceremonial robes become transparent. The Shinigami was approaching, and would take him, and somehow he believed, and the world along with him if he didn't recover and soon.

'_Ok...play time's over,_' he said to himself, then pulled the gates of his bijuu power off of their hinges, with the symbolic barriers that sealed the power away gone, the power flooded the blonde.

The red power enveloped the blonde within his mindscape and a moment later the power blasted forth from his body as his advanced healing factor went into overdrive healing him nigh instantly. The sudden rush of power also caused Sasuke to stop his manic laughter and looked warily in Naruto's direction.

A sudden rush, a tower of flaming red turned into a visibly raging inferno that swirled around Naruto's body. It's heat dried up the vegetation atop the canyon walls while also evaporating some of the water from the river that ran through the Valley of the End.

While Sasuke looked the part of a demon, Naruto gained the looks of an even more feral looking kitsune in his transformation. No longer was he blonde, but now he was a red head. Nine tails swished behind his body as his nails lengthened into claws. His whisker marks were more defined, and his single visible eye had gained a slit.

Monster against Monster. One of rage and one of hate.

Naruto stood on his own two feet clothed in the fires of his bijuu chakra. Sasuke standing a few meters away but opposite him. Both had grim looks on their faces, one of exasperation and annoyance, while the other with determination. But at the same time both of them had a feeling that the battle would not end in the way either wanted.

Forget actual techniques, form, shape, or control. The two rushed at each other at the drop of a leaf and met just above the water of the river that ran between their former positions. Water scattered everywhere at the force of their fists meeting with the exact same force. The meeting of the closed fists occurred several more times until they added some kicks to their close range meelee attacks.

Each blow met, kick met kick, punch met punch, and ever headbutt met headbutt. The forces were so earth shattering that the very walls of the Valley of the End carcked as each shockwave of force slammed into them. The river, statues, and waterfall, were not fairing any better. The end was coming for the Valley of the End.

They each failed to notice the sheer destruction they were causing to their surroundings. They simply wanted to pound the other into the ground. Naruto in order to bring back the traitor, while Sasuke wanting to kill Naruto plain and simple. Each of them also failed to notice that their energies were bleeding into their surroundings, if not killing some living organism, then causing it to go through a very quick evolution process. The magic in the air grew thick as kitsune were connected to magic, and Naruto had a lot of that. Sasuke's more demonic energy was tainted with the growing taint of the Juubi, the darkness mixed in with the magic. The magical and cursed energy combined with the chakra and seeped into the living and non-living, changing everything forever.

Rocks grew soft as pillows but still retained their solidness. Water changed into poison but changed in taste to match any soda, a sweet death. Roots of plants along with the plants themselves changed irreversibly into things that could be found in the Forbidden Forest. One tree even changed into a Whomping Willow, one that could really kill someone with the level of strength of Maito Gai. Any animals that could be found in the area grew larger and even deadlier, it was like a section of the Forest of Death had been transplanted to the Valley of the End.

A massive centipede that burst from the rock face of the walls of the Valley of the End was crushed into mush as Naruto was finally able to land a solid bone crushing hit on Sasuke's hand, the excess force flew at the mutated creature killing it instantly. It had not truly been able to enjoy its larger form.

Sasuke retaliated by delivering a bone disintegrating kick to Naruto's thigh which sent the blonde careening into another wall along with killing a giant ant that had also tunneled its way onto the battlefield. Insects of all magnified shapes and sizes then began crawling out of the walls of the Valley, along with some more than just alive and mutated plant life.

But none of them really mattered in the eyes of the two warring monsters. Any that interferred in the battle met with death. Even the Shinigami dared not intervene for the Shinigami had never ever met such a sight in its long existence in the reality. It trusted that two teens would not be needing its services and thus he departed to find and report to Ryoku what was transpiring. Surely that Daimyo of Water would find the information valuable enough to shield the god of death from the end of the world should the two teens cause it in their struggle for supremacy.

All of the gods were blind to the two of them, none wanting or even being granted the knowledge as to who would win out, who would come out on top. Children of Destiny. Chosen of Prophecy. The very fate of the world hung in the balance, both sides representing an outcome an ending. One was fated to live, the other to die. One was fated to save the world, the other to destroy it.

The two combatants eventually jumped away from one another. They ran in different directions away from one another, giving each other time to prepare their final attack.

Sasuke prepared his Chidori one more powerful than any he had ever made in the past. He charged it up with all his hate and killing intent, it bled from blue to a dark and sickly purple as he held it in his hand, the chirping of a thousand birds had escalated to hundreds of thousands of then that the very sound itself caused nearby boulders to shatter into a fine dust.

Naruto on the other hand stood a number of meters away from Sasuke in his hand swirled an orb that continually condensed into something even more power by each passing second. He condensed his power into the orb of chaos he held. The Rasengan was a swirling mass of chakra, but with all the power that Naruto was pouring into it, it could probably level an entire country if it imploded and did not serve its purpose. It became something like a black hole in Naruto's palm, swallowing not only anything that touched it but also light. From a blazing blue orb it meshed into a swirling mixture of all colors of the rainbow, changing depending on what energy was pushed into it as Naruto also poured in some magic for good measure.

When the two of them felt that their attacks were at their zenith in power and stability, they both simultaneously sprang into action. Sasuke shattering all around him as he moved in for the kill. Naruto obliterating all around him or sucking it into his orb, adding fuel to the powerful orb of destruction, as he made his way to Sasuke to meet the other head on for another confrontation.

Had anyone been watching they would have seen a sudden increase in the destruction. The two left a vacuum in their wake, what remained of the Valley of the End was pulled in to fill the space. Then when the two opposing forces met somewhere in the middle of the length that formerly separated them.

It was like a miniature nuclear explosion, or the dying of a star. Both attacks collided with surprisingly equal force, the emotions behind each attack were what really gave them power in this situation and instead of holding the other at bay or shattering from the pressure, the attacks merged into one ball of energy that grew into a ball of destructive force that whatever remained of the Valley of the End was completely obliterated.

The ball of energy formed at first an expanding dome, then the dome exploded upwards into a tower of power. One so great that it was felt across the nations, and it could be seen as a light so bright that even those in farthest reaches of the world could see a glimmer of it.

Then as suddenly as it had formed, it vanished. Another vacuum was formed.

The Valley of the End was no more.

Two figures lay sprawled across from each other, each close to where their loyalties lay. Unmoving for a moment. Then they each stirred as they forced their bodies into motion.

"One day...when and where matters not," they both said, gazes locked, "This battle shall be finished...until then..live...live that I might end you."

'_That I might prove that I am greater!_' Sasuke continued in his mind.

'_That I might save you from this darkness!_' Naruto screamed in his mind wishing for Sasuke to hear, but he had used up all of what remained of his core's power.

Sasuke leapt away using what strength remained to make his way past the border, while Naruto slumped into the waiting arms of the Kaguya warriors, specifically Shiki who had arrived just after the two fated warriors said their parting words. Sasuke ran on what meager power remained, while Naruto let go of what remained, resealing it behind newly furbished cage doors.

"We got you, Naruto-sama," Shiki said as he lifted up the young teen, "You can rest now."

"Thanks...Shiki-nii," Naruto said as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep as the mission's events finally caught up with him.

"Form ranks!" Shiki ordered aloud, "We're serving as escort for Naruto-sama. We owe him the return of Kimimaro!"

A second of two later the Kaguya were in formation, no enemy would be able to get through the protective shell of hardened bone that the Kaguya warriors had prepared for any hostile encounter. Kimimaro was not amongst them as he had been sent to Ryoku's care via a special portkey.

"Eliminate all hostiles in our path," Shiki ordered, then he nodded to the Kaguya at the head of the group to begin moving.

Their formation and the bones, that grew to shield them and destroy any and all hostiles, made them look like some kind of bone white dragon that flew through the trees and on the ground. They moved as one, making their bone armor link like chainmail.

They passed by the other battlefields, ones whose combatants had already been taken away. The enemy to holding cells or labs, while the Konoha-nin to the hospital. The group was the most surprising sight that Kakashi and his team of medic-nins met as they journeyed in search of Naruto, and hopefully Sasuke.

"Halt!" Kakashi called out as he stopped at the head of his group, his order caused the Kaguya to slow down and stop just a meter away from the Konoha-nins, "What in the world?"

The bone dragon dissolved as the Kaguya reabsorbed their bone armor into themselves which revealed themselves for who they were. Kaguya one and all, save for the obvious blonde that was resting in Shiki's arms.

"Hatake Kakashi," the lead Kaguya greeted, "I am Kaguya Shiozumi, we are serving as Naruto-sama's escort and honor guard as he returns to Konoha. He is in no need for medical attention, just lots of rest due to all the power he used in battling the Uchiha to a standstill. I ask that you allow us to perform this duty, to bring Naruto-sama back to his home, where I am sure that Shiro-sama is waiting for him and news of the mission."

"Uh...sure," Kakashi said and signed to his team to turn around and head on back before asking, "What of Sasuke? What happened to him?"

"Our duty is to Naruto-sama," Shiozumi stated, "The Uchiha had left beyond the borders of this country before Naruto-sama could say anything about going after him. We unlike you are not bound by the political games played by the countries since Mizu has some ways to avoid conflict."

"I see," Kakashi said, and so permitted the Kaguya to continue onwards, but informed them that only three of their number would be allowed within the walls of the village.


End file.
